Wang Po-jung’s RBI triple off reliever Davide Anselmi capped a four-run seventh that blew a 1-0 lead wide open and put Taiwan en route to beating Italy 6-0 at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night to close out the Group A preliminaries of the 2014 IBAF Under-21 Baseball World Cup tournament with a perfect 5-0 record.
What should have been an easy victory for the home team against the fourth-placed Italian side, who lost two heading into the contest, turned into a pitchers’ duel between Italy’s starter and crowd favorite Lin Tzu-wei, with Taiwan hanging on to a slim 1-0 lead through the sixth.
Other than a lone run off Andrea Pizziconi in the bottom of the first on a timely single by Wang Ping-chieh, the hosts were unable to solve the right-hander over the next four innings, despite collecting five hits off the starter over the same span.
However, Pizziconi lost control in the top of the sixth with a pair of leadoff walks to force himself out of the game.
Even though the Taiwan hitters did not score against Pizziconi’s successor Anselmi right away in the sixth, they did pave the way in the following inning, jumping all over the reliever with four runs on three hits in what ended up being a decisive seventh to break the game wide open.
Picking up the win for Taiwan was Lin, who took a shutout two outs into the sixth before being relieved in a two-hit gem with eight strikeouts and three walks, while the loss was charged against Pizziconi, despite his gutsy performance.
“[Lin] had a whale of a game to keep Italy from turning the tables on us, that was the key to the win,” pleased Taiwan skipper Kuo-Lee Chien-fu said of his star pitcher after the game.
The Islanders will get a much needed off day today to prepare for tomorrow’s Super Round Robin, where the top-three finishers from Groups A and B will battle through another round to determine which teams will qualify for Sunday’s medal games.
In yesterday’s other Group A games, the Czech Republic beat Mexico 12-9 and South Korea overcame New Zealand 4-1.
In Group B action, Japan demolished Nicaragua 14-1 and Venezuela outclassed the Netherlands 6-3.
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