Taiwan proved no match for South Korea in the Asian Games baseball gold medal game in Guangzhou, China, last night, falling short against their nemeses from the north 9-3, settling for the silver medal in this year’s competition.
South Korea wasted little time getting on the board against the defending champions when Jeong Kuen-woo led off the game with a single off Taiwan starter Pan Wei-lun (潘威倫), took second on a sacrifice bunt on the ensuing play and scored on Choo Shin-soo’s RBI single to take a quick 1-0 lead.
Taiwan would return the favor in the bottom of the first when Lin Che-hsuan (林哲瑄) reached second on an error following an infield single off South Korean starter Ryu Hyun-in and scoring on Chen Yung-chi’s (陳鏞基) single to left two batters later to tie the game at 1-1.
PHOTO: REUTERS
That was the extent to which Taiwan were able to keep pace with South Korea as their opponents plated their second run of the game in the second on Park Kyung-oan’s run-scoring single off Pan that chased the starter after just two innings, before tacking on four more in the third, highlighted by a pair of homers by Lee Dai-ho and Kang Jung-ho off reliever Chen Kuan-yu (陳冠宇) to take a 6-1 lead.
Even though Taiwan would get two of the runs back in the bottom of the fourth on the strength of a double by Chang Tai-shan (張泰山) and a single from Hu Chin-lung (胡金龍), it was not enough to change the outcome of the contest as South Korea overcame a sluggish fifth and sixth by putting up their seventh run of the game in the seventh inning, before increasing their lead in the ninth inning on Kang’s second blast of the game, a two-run shot off reliever Huang Chih-lung (黃志龍) en route to a convincing 9-3 rout.
A lack of timely hitting, coupled with the three homers given up by the generous pitching staff ultimately cost Taiwan the game as they batted a combined two-for-13 with runners in scoring position, not to mention the 15 strikeouts granted by South Korea’s Ryu and reliever Yoon Suk-min.
Picking up the win was Yoon, who entered in the fifth and completely shut down the Taiwanese hitters by scattering three hits over five scoreless frames to beat Pan, who did not show his best in the game.
Taiwan skipper Yeh Chih-shien (葉志仙) summed it up best after the game.
“The homers really hurt us tonight,” Yeh said.
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station
TRIP TO TAIWAN: The resumption of group tours from China should be discussed between the two agencies tasked with handling cross-strait tourism, the MAC said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday reassured China-based businesspeople that he would follow former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) cross-strait policy to facilitate healthy and orderly exchanges with Beijing and build a resilient economy. “As president, I have three missions. First, I will follow president Tsai’s ‘four commitments’ to ensure that the country continues to exist and survive,” Lai told participants at a Lunar New Year event in Taipei hosted by the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). Lai said his second mission is to uphold the “four pillars of peace” by bolstering national defense, developing a growing and resilient economy, building partnerships with
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his