Taiwan earned their second straight trip into the title game of the 12U Baseball World Cup with a convincing 8-0 shutout win over previously unbeaten Venezuela at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu yesterday afternoon.
Starter Chen Po-chun starred in a two-hit gem for the defending champs as he baffled the South American bats all game long with an assortment of pitches that kept the Venezuelan hitters off balance over 5-2/3 innings of play. He was pulled off the mound after surrendering his second hit of the game two outs into the sixth after 88 pitches in a game he could have easily completed.
The hosts wasted little time getting to starter Aaron Bracho with a solo homer off the Venezuelan ace by Chen Chih-chun to lead off the top of the first. The quick 1-0 advantage lasted into the third, when the Taiwanese offense struck again with a pair of runs off Bracho, this time on the merit of an RBI single by Chiu Chih-heng and a groundout by Chen Ching-chieh that scored the runner from third.
Photo: Chang Chia-ming, Taipei Times
That was more than ample for Taiwan to claim the victory as Chen Po-chun cruised through the fifth with nine strikeouts (ten for the game) to silence the Venezuelan offense.
Held to a lone hit in the opening inning through five innings of play, Venezuela was unable to get anything going offensively, settling with the loss that will send them into the Bronze Medal game against Japan in Tianmu this morning.
US 9, JAPAN 1
The US scored nine unanswered runs after falling behind 0-1 in the top of the second to run away with a 9-1 victory over previously unbeaten Japan in Tianmu yesterday morning and earn the right to take on Taiwan in the title game.
After allowing Japan to score the first run of the match, courtesy of Hirokazu Kikuta’s RBI single off US starter Joseph Naranjo, it was all-US from that point on, as the young men in the red, white and blue teed off against the Japanese pitching with three runs on four hits in the third, before a six-run fourth that included a grand slam by Colton Olasin to seal the deal.
Picking up the win for the US was Adam Crampton, who relieved Naranjo in the third with two shutout innings of one-hit ball to beat Japanese starter Kikuta.
PANAMA 3, BRAZIL 1
Panama bounced back from a tough loss to Japan on Friday with a 3-1 win over Brazil in the classification round at the Taipei Youth Park yesterday afternoon to earn the right to face South Korea in the battle for fifth place this morning.
Starter Ariel Vega retired the first dozen batters he faced to ground a Brazil attack that had not plated a run for 10 innings, dating back to Brazil’s 2-0 loss the US on Friday. He would finish with a complete-game win on a brilliant two-hitter.
SOUTH KOREA 8, MEXICO 4
South Korea used a five-run second to break a 1-all tie and went on to defeat Mexico in an 8-4 final at the Taipei Youth Park yesterday morning to qualify for the battle for fifth-place against Panama.
Dong Wook-kwon’s two-run double highlighted the game-deciding second in which South Korea batted around the order to chase Mexican starter Luis Catellanos just one out into the second.
He was charged with the loss for serving up six runs on as many hits, while the win went to reliever Seong Min-kim.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set