Taiwan shook off a rough start by holding Germany to only three hits after the second inning to win their opener by a 5-3 margin at this year’s World Port Baseball Tournament at the Familiestadion in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, late on Thursday evening.
Eventual game-winner Kuo Chun-lin entered the game to start the third with his team trailing Germany 3-1 and held the German bats to three hits the rest of the way with seven impeccable innings of shutout ball to help Taiwan rally for the win.
Doing the damage at the plate for Taiwan was Yang Kuan-wei, whose four hits drove in two of the team’s five runs to lift the Islanders past Germany.
Taiwan did not exactly open the game on the right footing, with starter Cheng Wen-hao serving up three runs over the first two frames on a pair of singles and three uncharacteristic errors by his defense.
That was all skipper Chen Wei-cheng could bear as he called for Kuo to help rescue the game early on to stop the German offensive from piling on more runs.
“Two days of rain really kept us from getting a good feel for the field, that’s why we had three errors early in the game,” Chen said after the game.
Next up for Taiwan are tough hosts the Netherlands, who won their opener against Curacao in a 6-0 final following Taiwan’s match against Germany. The first pitch was scheduled for 7pm yesterday evening.
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