Lack of offense continued to trouble Taiwan's national baseball team three games into a four-game exhibition series against Cuba, Italy, Canada, and the Netherlands, as the squad prepares for the Athens Olympics.
The warm-up sessions were played in Nettuno, a small town near Rome.
Team Taiwan only managed to collect two hits in its 4-0 loss to Cuba on Friday, despite a decent showing by a pitching staff that yielded four runs on seven hits.
Cuba is favored to win the gold medal in Athens later this month.
A lack of familiarity with the Cuban pitchers was the main reason that Team Taiwan had trouble against the "Red Storm," striking out 14 times under the hot summer sun in Nettuno.
Fortunately for Team Taiwan, starter Chuang Hung-liang (
Other than a misplaced fastball in the fourth that was smashed into the left-center bleachers for a two-run homer, Chuang seemed comfortable with the top amateur lineup in the world for the most part.
Reliever Chen Wei-yin (
The lefty prospect for Japan's Chunichi Dragons then misfired on a pick-off attempt that advanced both runners before surrendering a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch that scored the third and fourth run of the game for Team Cuba.
TAIWAN 2, ITALY 0
Faring slightly better at the plate, Team Taiwan managed to rip five hits off three Italian pitchers to bounce back in a 2-0 shutout win on Saturday.
Brother Elephants hitting tandem Chen Chih-yuan (
Taiwan was 4-for-4 on stolen-base attempts, including a textbook version of the double steal that scored the game's first run in the bottom of the second.
Starter Du Chang-wei (杜章偉) was spectacular in one-hitting Italy over five frames before relievers Gheng Bo-hsuen (耿伯軒) followed with three more innings of one-hit ball and Lin Yueh-ping (林岳平) got the last three outs in the ninth to preserve the shutout.
NeTHERLANDS 5, TAIWAN 0
Eight issued walks embarrassed the Taiwan's pitchers in Sunday's contest against a feisty Dutch club that blanked Team Taiwan in a 5-0 decision.
Even though the hitters were able to pound off six hits on offense, none came with runners in scoring position.
Cleanup man Chen Ching-feng (
Reliever Lin Yueh-ping walked the first two batters in the fifth inning before giving up a blooper single to shallow right that sent both runners home to make it 3-0.
The Dutch scored two more runs against lefty reliever Lin Ying-jeh (
Team Taiwan will take on Canada in the final game of the exhibition series today before it sets sail for Athens on tomorrow.
"Exhibition games help coaches make final ahead of the real thing," Hsu Sheng-ming (徐生明), head coach of Team Taiwan said.
Hsu will try to improve on Taiwan's silver-medal finish at the 1992 Barcelona Games.
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