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Loss ends Taiwan Little League World Series ambitions

Taiwan’s Little League baseball team was knocked out of the Asia Pacific Little League Championship yesterday in Hong Kong, after losing 4-1 to the home team at the Hong Kong Disneyland Resort.

The loss ended any chance the Dongyuan Elementary School team from Taipei City’s Wanhua District (萬華) had of representing the Asia-Pacific region in the Little League World Series to be held at South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, late next month.

Entering the contest a game behind undefeated Hong Kong in the Asia pool standings and needing a win to stay alive, Taiwan opened yesterday’s contest promisingly, scoring a run in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead.

Hong Kong struck back, however, with two runs in the third to take a 2-1 lead and two more in the sixth to seal the victory.

GUAM NEXT

Hong Kong, which clinched first place in the Asia pool after improving its record to 5-0 with the win over Taiwan, will now play Guam, winner of the Pacific pool, today to determine who heads to South Williamsport.

Dongyuan’s coach Lai Min-nan said his team and Hong Kong were evenly matched and that despite trying their best, his players were unable to take advantage of their scoring opportunities during the game.

Taiwan began the tournament strongly, with three straight wins over China, India and Thailand, before losing its final two games to South Korea and Hong Kong.

Once a force in international Little League baseball, only two Taiwanese teams have qualified for the World Series since the Fu hsing team from Kaohsiung won Taiwan’s last Little League World Series crown in 1996.

Meanwhile, Team Taiwan beat Japan 2-1 during the extra inning at the Asia-Pacific Zone BRONCO League Tournament at Youth Park in Taipei County on Tuesday to earn the opportunity of representing the Asia-Pacific region in the PONY youth baseball tournament to be held in Monterey, California, next month.

LOADED BASES

With the two teams level at 1-1 in the top of the seventh, Taiwan failed to seize the opportunity to score another point in the bottom of the inning when the bases were loaded.

Fortunately, bases were loaded again in the bottom of the eighth as Taiwan’s Lin Chen-yen scored the go-ahead run on a wide pitch to win the match for Taiwan.

Taiwan’s head coach, Lin Chuan-kuo praised his team for doing their best in the face of strong opposition.

Pitchers Tu Chia-ming and Li Kuan-yi combined to perfection.

The calm Tu was assigned as the starting pitcher with Li as catcher. Except for a minor error in the top of the first inning, Tu did not lose any scores from the second to seventh innings.

The extrovert Li switched with Tu in the bottom of the extra inning and performed outstandingly.

Taiwan’s team also beat Japan and South Korea at the Asia-Pacific Zone PONY League Tournament held in South Korea on Tuesday.
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