After failing to protect an early lead, previously unbeaten Taiwan came up short against Japan by a 6-2 margin in the final game of the Super Round Robin of this year’s IBAF Under-21 Baseball World Cup at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon.
Even though the outcome carried no bearing for the hosts in terms of their chances of contesting this evening’s title game — since Taiwan and Japan already secured their tickets to the final on Friday — a win would have given the young squad a huge mental boost as they look to keep the title at home.
“A win would have been nice, but I’m still very optimistic about our chances in the title game,” Taiwan skipper Kuo-Lee Chien-fu said after the game.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
His troops have come a long way in the tournament, while maintaining their composure to carry a perfect record into yesterday’s contest.
Their ability to rebound from a setback will be tested as they take their vanquishers this evening.
The highly anticipated showdown between the two previously unbeaten teams lived up to its billing in the early going, as starters Kentaro Taira of Japan and Taiwan’s Liu Yu-yen held their ground in a scoreless affair through the third.
Photo: Lin Cheng-kung, Taipei Times
Taira’s luck ended in the fourth, when he issued a leadoff walk to Taiwan’s Su Chih-chieh and a single to Yang Tai-chun, before surrendering a two-run double to Wang Po-jung to put Japan 0-2 behind.
Taiwan would have scored another run in the inning had it not been for a perfect relay throw by the Japan defense, which gunned down Wang at the plate on Chen Chieh-hsien’s single to end the inning.
The home side’s 2-0 lead lasted just one inning, as the visiting Samurais finally broke through in the sixth with Liu out of the game, connecting on a pair of singles on top of a walk off reliever Huang Tzu-peng to tie the game at two-all.
Photo: CNA
Even though Huang left the inning without further damage, the momentum had clearly shifted in favor of Japan as they loaded up the bases with two singles and a walk off Huang’s successor, Chang Kai-lun, to set up Seiya Suzuki’s tie-breaking three-run triple. All three of the runs were unearned against Chang after an erroneous throw by catcher Wu Ming-hung on what would have been an inning-ending double-play extended the inning to bring Suzuki to the plate.
That made the difference as the Taiwan bats could not make up the deficit, going hitless from the seventh on to lose by four in the end.
Toshike Sakurai was credited with the win for his four innings of two-run relief to beat counterpart Chang, who fell victim to the costly error by Wu that led to Japan’s go-ahead runs.
The two teams will again suit up to do battle in tonight’s tournament final at the Intercontinental, with the opening pitch scheduled for 6:30pm.
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