Taiwan doubled up against the Netherlands in an 8-4 final in their second game at this year’s World Port Baseball Tournament at the Familiestadion in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, early yesterday morning to improve to a 2-0 mark.
The hitters stole the show for Taiwan, with five doubles in a rare display of offensive power against the Dutch pitchers to power Taiwan past the hosts.
Leading the way at the plate for Taiwan were Lin Chia-yu and Huang Yi-kun, who batted two-for-three each with three doubles and five combined RBIs, accounting for more than half of Taiwan’s total run production.
Even though the Taiwanese managed to score first with a run off Dutch starter Diego Markwell in the bottom of the opening frame to take a 1-0 lead, they soon found themselves down by three as the hosts answered with four runs in the top of the second off starter Wang Wei-chung on the strength of five singles and an error by the Taiwanese defense in a 4-1 score.
Taiwan chipped away at the deficit with a run in the third and the fourth to come within a run of the Dutch before shooting ahead in the sixth with two more runs.
Huang’s two-run double highlighted a three-run spurt in the eighth that provided some insurance as the visitors scored seven unanswered runs to complete their comeback.
Picking up the win was Wang, who allowed four runs (two earned) on nine hits with eight strikeouts over seven innings, while the loss went to the Netherlands’ Leon Boyd, who gave up four runs on three hits in 3-2/3 innings of relief.
“It’s been a while since we beat the Dutch,” Taiwanese skipper ChenWei-cheng said after their game.
His troops were next to take on the defending champs from Cuba, who were upset by Curacao in their opener, in what was likely to be an uphill battle for Taiwan.
The opening pitch in the game against Cuba was scheduled for 2pm (local time) yesterday afternoon.
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