Taiwan barely broke a sweat over last night's baseball contest against Thailand in its second game of this year's Asian Games at Doha, crushing the opposition by a lopsided margin of 16-0 to remain undefeated at 2-0.
Twelve different hitters for Taiwan collected at least one hit in the 21-hit slugfest, headed by Chang Tai-shan's (Sinon Bulls) perfect 4-for-4 batting with a home run and three RBIs to trigger the no-mercy rule that ended the game after just five innings of play.
Fellow teammates Chang Jien-ming (Bulls), Chen Chin-fong (La New Bears) and Chen Fong-min (Bears) also went deep in the game with a homer apiece off three different Thai pitchers to make this one a foregone conclusion in the early going.
PHOTO: AFP
Chen Yong-ji's RBI single off Thailand starter Chanatip Thongbai, put Taiwan on the board in the top of the first before Chen Chin-fong's two-run blast quickly made it 3-0 in favor of Taiwan.
After a scoreless second the Taiwanese bats would roar once again by racking up nine more runs off the Thai pitching staff on seven singles, a double, and Chang Jien-ming's homer to blow the game wide open at 12-0. Fifteen batters made their way to the plate in the inning that lasted nearly 30 minutes.
Taiwan seemed ready to pad its lead some more with two base hits in the fourth, but a perfectly executed double play by Thailand's Anukul Sudsawad (shortstop) and Nattapong Sampahangsit (second baseman) left the Taiwanese empty-handed in the inning.
The scoring draught for Taiwan would last just an inning with Yu Hsien-ming (Bulls) belting a run-scoring single off Thai reliever Kamolphan Kanjanavisut in the fifth that made it 13-0 before Hsieh Jia-shien's (Macoto Cobras) sacrifice-fly, coupled with a poor relay throw scored Taiwan's 14th and 15th run in the game.
Chen Fong-min's solo shot off Kanjanavisut would conclude all the scoring for Taiwan as the slaughter finally came to an end after the fifth.
Keeping the Thai hitters hitless in the game were four Taiwanese hurlers, led by starter Pan Wei-luen (President Lions) who pitched two shutout innings before being relieved by fellow Lions mate Lin Yueh-ping in the third in the interest of conserving his arm strength.
Right-hander Keng Po-hsuan entered in the fourth in a 1-2-3 inning before the fourth-and-final Taiwan pitcher Lee Cheng-chang started the fifth and retire the final three batters for Thailand to keep the no-hit shutout intact.
Grabbing the easy win for Taiwan was Lin Yueh-ping while starter Thongbai suffered the defeat for Thailand in an overmatched contest.
AP, DOHA
A three-run home run by Hisayoshi Chono in the bottom of the ninth inning gave Japan a 10-7 win over defending champion South Korea yesterday.
The win set up a possible gold medal showdown with a Taiwanese team which includes several US major league players.
South Korea, which has won gold in the past two Asian Games, took an early lead when third baseman Lee Dae-ho hit a home run off Japan's Satoshi Komatsu with two runners on base.
The Koreans added on another run to make it 4-0, but Japan came right back, scoring five runs in the bottom of the inning, two on a home run by first baseman Yasuyuki Saigo.
Takashi Yoshiura then homered in the fourth inning to put Japan ahead 7-4.
After a run in the fifth inning narrowed Japan's lead to two, the Koreans rallied in the eighth, with a single by shortstop Park Jin-man that drove in a run, and another by leftfielder Lee Byong-kyu that evened the score at 7-7.
With two men on base, Lee Dae-ho then gave the Japanese a scare with a powerful fly that came down just short of the fence.
With one out and the bases loaded, Oh Seoung-hwan struck out Kei Nomoto and Keiji Ikebe popped up for an easy out to keep Japan scoreless in the eighth.
Hideto Isomura, pitching from the eighth inning, held off the Korean batters in the ninth, and an error by Lee Byong-kyu allowed Japan to put runners on first and second. Chono then brought them in with his home run.
Pitcher Ryu Hyun-jin, who at 19 is the Korea Baseball Organization's rookie of the year and most valuable player of 2006, started for the Koreans, but was pulled out after the third inning.
Taiwan and Japan are scheduled to play each other in the final game of the competition on Thursday.
There are six teams participating in the games' baseball competition -- Japan, Taiwan, China, the Philippines, Thailand and South Korea. The medal winners are decided based on the results of the 15 round-robin games.
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