The Herbalife Cup, the nation’s annual Little League Championship tournament, began in Taipei this weekend with 13 teams vying for the title and higher honors.
Chinese Taipei Baseball Association secretary-general Richard Lin said developing more young players was important for the sport.
“Baseball is Taiwan’s national sport. Competition at the Little League level is very important because it is the foundation for our youth baseball and international competitiveness. Scouts look to Little League games to discover and cultivate star players,” Lin said.
Photo courtesy of CTBA
He said that international honors are at stake in this year’s Herbalife Cup, because the tournament’s top-performing players will be selected for an all-star national squad that will represent Taiwan at the Baseball Federation of Asia’s 12U Asian Baseball Championship, which is scheduled to start in the Philippines later this year.
In the Herbalife Cup, participating teams are divided into two groups in which they play a round-robin with a double-defeat elimination format.
Group A has four teams who are expected to do well: Taipei, Greater Kaohsiung, New Taipei City and Greater Tainan.
Group B is expected to be a contest between east coast rivals Hualien County and Taitung County, with Greater Taichung also a threat.
In yesterday’s opener, Greater Kaohsiung and Hualien County both won 6-2 over Taipei and Taoyuan County respectively.
New Taipei City won with their last at-bat 7-6 over Nantou County, and Hsinchu County defeated Yilan County 6-1 to complete yesterday’s games.
The sentimental favorite is Chiayi County in Group A, which is the birthplace of the renowned Kano team, the high-school squad who reached the final of Japan’s Koshien tournament in 1931.
Kano director Umin Boya was at the opening ceremony of the Herbalife Cup on Friday.
After the opening ceremony, players and coaching staff from 13 teams were treated to a screening of Kano at the Core Pacific Mall in Taipei.
Finals are scheduled for Saturday next weekend, including a third-place game, at Taipei City’s Youth Park baseball field in Wanhua District.
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