Taiwan defeated South Korea 7-0 in the Asia-Pacific Zone qualifying tournament of the Pony Baseball League’s Pony division in Fukuoka, Japan, on Wednesday.
The win put Taiwan on top of their group in the qualifying tournament and moved them a step closer toward clinching a spot in the Pony World Series, which is to take place in Pennsylvania next month.
Taiwan opened the scoring in the third inning, when Wu Chih-lun walked, advanced to third on a double and scored on a wild pitch.
They then took control of the game in the fourth scoring four runs on three hits and a critical error by South Korea to take a 5-0 lead.
The onslaught continued in the sixth, when Wei You-bai hit a two-run home run to put Taiwan up 7-0.
Yang Cheng-yu started on the mound for Taiwan and he combined with reliever Wang Hsiang-en to limit the South Korean hitters to only three hits over six innings, while striking out four.
PONY Softball/Baseball is a US-organized international baseball competition held for young athletes from the ages five to 18. The Pony division is for players aged 13 and 14.
The Asia-Pacific Zone Regional Tournament is being held from Sunday to tomorrow, with 11 teams from the Asia-Pacific Region competing.
Taiwan are to play one more game in their preliminary group, against Indonesia today at 10:30am.
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