Taoyuan County successfully defended their title in the title game of the E Sun Cup Baseball Championship last night by blanking Yilan County 5-0 at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City.
The win not only gave Taoyuan County’s amazing comeback from the losers’ bracket in this year’s competition a storybook ending, but also netted them an unprecedented fourth straight title in the event’s seven-year history.
Leading the way for Taoyuan County was starter Chang Ming-shiang, who went the distance in a six-hit shutout.
Neither team was able to score in a classic pitchers’ duel between Chang and his counterpart Lin Chia-wei as both hurlers cruised through the fourth with ease.
However, Lin soon ran into a world of trouble as Taoyuan County singled off him to lead off the top of the fifth and took second and third on a passed ball by fellow catcher following an erroneous throw on a sacrifice bunt attempt on the previous play by Taoyuan County to set up Lee Chih-bang’s two-run single that made it 2-0 for Taoyuan County.
Taoyuan County tacked on another run in the inning on a perfectly executed suicide squeeze for their third run of the game before blowing it wide open in the eighth with two more to seal the win.
Yilan County had their best scoring opportunity against Chang in the seventh with a pair of base hits off the Taoyuan County starter. However, a base-running mistake by the runner on first to take third on a single to right that resulted in the runner being gunned down at third took away what would have been a run kept Chang’s shutout bid alive.
In the battle for third place, Greater Taichung’s Shi Yuan High School took advantage of a four-run third to take an early 4-0 lead and held on for their life to escape with a 4-3 win over Greater Kaohsiung in Sinjhuang yesterday afternoon.
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