Taiwan trounced hosts the Philippines on Friday to win the Big League Baseball Asia-Pacific Regional Tournament at the Clark Freeport Zone, formerly Clark Air Base, north of Manila.
The under-18 baseball squad, with members from Taiwan’s top high-school teams, had victories in all six of their round-robin games, against the Philippines, Guam and Saipan.
In a display of firepower, taking advantage of shaky pitching and fielding errors, Taiwan cruised to triumph against the hosts by sending 16 batters to the plate in the opening frame to score 12 runs.
They piled on seven more runs in both the second and third innings for a 26-0 lead. At that point, the Philippines team manager decided to call the game. Due to tournament rules, the result was registered as 7-0 on a forfeit inside five innings.
“I got the players to take extra batting practice yesterday. So they were fired up and hit strongly in this game,” Taiwan’s team manager Wu Po-hung said after the game. “The whole team are MVPs, because every batter and pitcher had very good performance today.”
With the win, Taiwan are to compete in the Big League Division at the Little League World Series, to take place in Easley, South Carolina, from July 23.
In contrast, at the Little League level, Team Taiwan lost in the final to South Korea on Friday.
South Korea scored two home runs in downing Taiwan 9-2. The South Korea pitchers thoroughly dominated Taiwan’s youngsters, issuing 12 strikeouts and giving up only four hits. The Little League team were expected home today.
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