Ku Pao Home Economics and Commercial High School from Taipei County erupted for 12-plus hits for the second straight night to top Kaohsiung County’s Kao Yuan Senior High School 9-1 in Game 2 to win the annual High School Baseball Taiwan Championship 2-0 in Sinjhuang on Sunday evening.
The win gave Ku Pao a perfect 7-0 record in this year’s title series and helped garner their second title in three years to start what could be another dynasty for the perennial high school baseball powerhouse in Taipei County.
Ku Pao were runners-up in last year’s competition, dropping two straight after taking the first game in the best-of-three series to lose to Tainan’s Nan Ying Vocational High School.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
This year they made sure there would be no Game 3 by following Saturday night’s Game 1 win with an even more convincing victory. Ku Pao knocked off Kao Yuan in seven innings on grounds of the mercy rule (a seven-run lead after the seventh inning) to close out the year on an especially high note.
Starter Chang Jung-long scattered six singles while fanning five and walking three over seven solid frames to earn the complete-game win. It was his best effort of the tournament by far, especially against a potent Kao Yuan attack that averaged more than six runs per game heading into the title series.
Offensively for Ku Pao, cleanup hitter Yang Hong-sheng’s hit two of three with a pair of RBIs for the second straight game and Chang Rei-lin and Wu Dong-long batted a combined 5-for-8 with five RBIs to dominate Kao Yuan’s pitching.
With their backs against the wall, Kao Yuan sent staff ace Chen Sheng-nan to the mound in search of a win that would force the series into a decisive Game 3. But Chen, who was pitching on two days’ rest after picking up two outstanding complete-game wins earlier last week, ran out of steam and failed to maintain his normal velocity, allowing seven runs on 11 hits over five innings for the loss.
“We tried everything we could to get our hitters ready against him [Chen], and the outcome was positive,” Ku Pao skipper Tsai Ming-tang said after the game.
Ku Pao had asked two lefty alumni to pitch during batting practice for his team and studied videotapes of Chen.
Final standings
| 1. | Ku Pao Home Economics and Commercial High School |
| 2. | Kao Yuan Senior High School |
| 3. | National Tung-Shih Senior High School |
| 4. | Chung Dau Senior High School |
| 5 | Taichung Shi Yuan Senior High School |
| 6. | Mei Ho Senior High School |
| 7. | Qiang Senior High School |
| 8. | National Taichung Agricultural Senior High School |
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