Taiwan stormed into the title game at this year’s World Port Baseball Tournament in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, with an impressive 4-1 win over Cuba late yesterday.
It was the second time that Taiwan had defeated the defending champs from Cuba in less than a week, putting a very satisfied smile on skipper Chen Wei-cheng’s face after the game.
“I know they [Cuba] did not send their top team this year, but it is still a great accomplishment for us to be able to beat them twice within the last week,” Chen said after the game.
Cuba had decided not to send its top team to this year’s tournament, unlike in previous years, without any explanation.
Similar to its previous win against Cuba on Monday, Taiwan were trailing 0-1 through the sixth after starter Chen Yu-hsun gave up a run in the third on a double down the leftfield line to Cuba’s Rusney Castillo to set up Yoilan Cerce’s RBI single up the middle.
Even though Taiwan had plenty of scoring opportunities over the first six innings of play, with seven hits off Cuba starter Yosvani Torres, a lack of timely hitting left them empty-handed on each occasion as they stranded a total of seven by going 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position.
Torres’ luck finally ran out in the seventh with Taiwan’s Yang Kuan-wei pounding out a bases-loaded single to left to score the tying run after Lin Wei-ting and Chen Chih-wei led off the inning with back-to-back singles.
Taiwan scored three more times in the same inning with a pair of hits off relievers Ismel Jimenez and Duniel Ibarra to take a 4-1 lead.
That was more than ample as Chen Yu-hsun retired the side in a perfect eighth before fellow righty Lin Yu-ching finished the game off with a flawless ninth to seal the win for Chen Yu-hsun.
On Thursday, Taiwan fell to the Netherlands 4-2 to suffer their first defeat of the tournament. Starter Wang Wei-chung fell behind early to the hosts 0-4 with a run in the third and three in the fourth on four hits and as many walks.
The deficit proved too much for Taiwan’s hitters to overcome as they managed only two runs the rest of the way to fall short by two in the end.
Wang was charged with the loss for giving up the early lead, while the win went to his counterpart Diegomar Markwell.
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