Taiwan rode the right arm of starter Sen Jung-hung in the final game of second-round action, topping Colombia in a 3-1 affair at the Mokdong Baseball Stadium in Seoul, South Korea, yesterday afternoon to earn a berth in the bronze-medal game at the 25th IBAF Under-18 Baseball World Championship.
The fireballer out of Taoyuan County’s Ping-chen Senior High School, who led the defending champs to a solid win over the Czech Republic in the Islanders’ opener a week ago, tossed eight innings of one-run ball on three hits to tame the Colombian bats for a good part of the game, despite allowing a one-run in the opening frame on a pair of singles to Colombia’s Yair Morelos and Cristian Cano.
Reliever Tseng Jen-ho entered in the top of the ninth and survived a leadoff single by Morelos by retiring the next three batters in order to preserve the win that propelled his team into this afternoon’s bronze-medal game against Colombia.
Offensively for the Taiwanese, Lin Tzu-wei’s valiant 2-for-4 effort with an RBI led an attack that got to Colombian starter Edgardo Hernandez early, with three quick runs on four hits over the first two innings of play to give the defending champions an early 3-1 advantage.
Fortunately for Taiwan, the three runs proved sufficient, as Hernandez promptly regained his poise by the bottom of the third inning and combined with fellow lefty Dewin Perez for six innings of shutout ball the rest of the way to keep the Taiwanese on their toes.
Sen was credited with the win, while Hernandez fell victim to an anemic attack that managed just a lone run off the Taiwanese pitching in a losing cause.
South Korea 9, Canada 3
Canada won the right to take on the US in tonight’s title game, despite dropping a 9-3 decision to South Korea at Mokdong yesterday afternoon.
Even though Taiwan, Canada, and the US all ended up with an identical 3-2 record in the second round, the Canadians and the Americans got the nod over the defending champs in an all-North American title game.
Taiwan found themselves the odd team out because of a set of tiebreaker rules that involve the net-run differential.
After Canada grabbed a 2-0 lead in the fourth on the strength of Christopher Shaw’s two-run single off South Korean starter Lee Su-min, the tide quickly turned the hosts’ way as they erupted for nine unanswered runs with a four-run fifth and a five-run seventh, thanks to a generous Canadian pitching staff that issued nine walks and hit four batsman over the course of the game.
Trailing 9-2, Canada was able to plate one more run in the seventh against Lee, but it was too little, too late, as South Korea sent Jang Hyun-sik to the mound to bail out Lee in the seventh, before Jang pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth to make the home crowd proud.
Japan 5, US 10
A total collapses by the Japanese defense led to four unearned runs for the US that turned a 4-5 deficit into an 8-5 lead in the decisive seventh and the Americans went on to defeat Japan 10-5 at the Mokdong Stadium last night.
Errors by shortstop Fumiya Hojo on consecutive plays put runners on first and second with no outs, instead of two outs with the bases empty.
That set up an RBI single by Cavan Biggio that would spark what ended up being a four-run spree for the US.
The win sent the Americans into the title game against Canada, while Japan was forced to settle for a date with South Korea in the battle for fifth place.
Brazil has four teams, more than any other country, in the expanded Club World Cup that kicked off yesterday in the US, but for SE Palmeiras, the competition holds a special meaning: winning it would provide some redemption. Under coach Abel Ferreira since 2020, Palmeiras lifted two Copa Libertadores titles, plus Brazilian league, cup and state championships. Even before Ferreira, it boasted another South American crown and 11 league titles. The only major trophy missing is a world champions’ title. Other Brazilian clubs like Fluminense FC and Botafogo FR, also in the tournament, have never won it either, but the problem for Palmeiras
Paris Saint-Germain’s Lee Kang-in has pleaded with South Korea fans to get behind the team at the 2026 FIFA World Cup after more boos were aimed at coach Hong Myung-bo despite leading them to qualification. South Korea reached next year’s finals in North America without losing a game, but that does not tell the whole story. The country’s soccer association has been in the firing line, having scrambled about to find a successor after sacking the unpopular Jurgen Klinsmann in February last year. They eventually settled on Hong, the decorated former skipper who had an unsuccessful stint as coach in 2013-2014, during which
Lionel Messi drew vast crowds and showed flashes of his brilliance when his Inter Miami side were held to a goalless draw by African giants Al-Ahly as the revamped FIFA Club World Cup got off to a festive start on Saturday. Fans showed up en masse for the Group A clash at the Hard Rock Stadium, home to the NFL’s Miami Dolphins, but Messi could not fully deliver, his best chance coming through a last-second attempt that was deflected onto the crossbar. Inter Miami next face FC Porto on Thursday in Atlanta, while Al-Ahly, who benefited from raucous, massive support, are to
Ferrari’s F1 fortunes might be flagging, but the Italian team start this weekend’s 24 Hours of Le Mans as favorites, targeting a third consecutive triumph in motorsport’s fabled endurance classic. Roger Federer is acting as celebrity starter with the tennis icon getting the 93rd edition of the jewel in four-wheeled endurance racing’s crown under way tomorrow. Twenty-four hours later, through daylight, darkness and dawn, the 21 elite hypercars are to battle it out over 300 laps (more than 4,000km) in front of a sold-out 320,000 crowd burning the midnight oil with copious quantities of coffee and beer. Ferrari made a triumphant return after
RSS