Taiwan beat South Africa 4-0 last night in a game that looked more like a spring training match than an Olympic qualifier, while South Korea suffered their first loss in a 4-3 upset to Canada in the 2008 IBAF Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament.
The results cemented a top-three finish in the tournament and an invitation to the 2008 Beijing Olympics to Taiwan, South Korea and Canada.
Taiwan, which was assured of a spot in the Olympics earlier in the day when Germany lost to Mexico, had only pride to play for.
Good pitching by Barry Armitage kept the game close, and for a while it looked like Taiwan might be challenged.
Taiwan didn't score until the top of the fifth, when Lin Yi-chuan hit a deep fly ball off the outfield wall that was good for a double and was brought home off a sacrifice fly by Wang Sheng-wei.
Taiwan added a run in the seventh off a solo home run by Chiang Chih-hsien.
Armitage left the game after walking the first batter in the top of the eighth.
He struck out three and gave up three hits, five walks and three earned runs.
Taiwan added two more runs in the eighth.
After Armitage's walk, Matthew Dancer came on in relief and walked another batter.
Kao Kuo-ching and Peng Cheng-min both hit a sacrifice fly to put Taiwan up 4-0.
They had a chance to do more damage in the ninth with the bases loaded and two outs, but Kao couldn't capitalize.
Not to be outdone by Armitage was Taiwan's starting pitcher Chiang Chien-ming.
Chiang struck out six over seven innings and didn't give up any runs for the win.
Taiwan's win, combined with South Korea's defeat at the hands of Canada, leaves all three teams in a tie for first with one day of action left.
Taiwan and Korea face each other today at 6:30pm in Taichung, while Canada plays Germany at 6:30pm in Douliou, Yunlin County.
South Africa has one last chance to win their first game of the tournament today at 12:30pm when they square off against Australia in Douliou.
Canada 4, South Korea 3
Canada confirmed their trip to the Beijing Olympics with an upset win over the previously unbeaten South Koreans at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night.
The Canadians started with a real bang in the first inning by picking up three runs to one, then adding another in the fourth.
The South Koreans fought back desperately in the ninth inning to claim two runs, but the Canadians held firm in a display reminiscent of their defeat of Taiwan on Monday.
The win also represented revenge of sorts against Australia; the Aussies were the only team to beat the Canadians so far in the tournament.
In putting South Korea to the sword, Canada killed any chance of losing their Olympics spot to the Aussies.
Australia 9, Spain 0
The Aussies recovered well yesterday afternoon from their painful loss to Team Taiwan the night before, keeping their chances of qualification alive for a few hours at the Intercontinental stadium with a comprehensive defeat of the luckless Spaniards.
Three runs in each of the first, second and fourth innings kept Spain out of the game, though the Aussies missed out on a mercy rule victory as the game stalled over the last five innings.
Mexico 4, Germany 0
The Mexicans scored in the first, third and ninth innings to take the match at the Douliou stadium, their third consecutive win after making a terrible start to the competition.
The Germans had retained a hope of qualifying but a measly four hits and two errors put paid to their chances.
| STANDING | P | W | L |
| Canada | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| South Korea | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| Taiwan | 6 | 5 | 1 |
| Mexico | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| Australia | 6 | 3 | 3 |
| Germany | 6 | 2 | 4 |
| Spain | 6 | 1 | 5 |
| South Africa | 6 | 0 | 6 |
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