Taiwan’s women’s softball team on Wednesday defeated Australia 6-0 in the bronze-medal game at the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, their first podium finish at a world championship since 2002.
Taiwan reached the game after losing their semi-final on Tuesday 7-0 against Japan, who later on Wednesday lost 3-2 in the final against the US.
Taiwan head coach Han Hsin-lin, who represented the country at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, said that the bronze medal would help the development of softball in Taiwan.
Photo: World Games 2022
“It’s been a long time since our last medal and I think it will help us put softball in the spotlight in our country,” Han said in a World Baseball Softball Confederation report. “This is a milestone for us, even if we’ve been at the top of the rankings for some time [Taiwan is currently ranked sixth], it’s been a long wait since the last medal.”
A key factor to the win was young Taiwan ace Ke Hsia-ai, who tossed a two-hit shutout, striking out four and walking two.
On the offensive side, Chen Chia-yi drove in the first run of the game with a single through the middle of the field to put Taiwan in front 1-0 in the bottom of the first inning.
In the second, Taiwan loaded the bases with no outs before Yang Yi-ting and Lin Feng-chen plated one each to widen the gap to 3-0.
Taiwan had loaded bases again in the bottom of the fourth when Lin popped a sacrifice fly to center field to make it 4-0.
Taiwan scored two more runs in the fifth inning, with Chen scoring on a squeeze play, while Liu Hsuan made a double steal to score the final run of the game.
Taiwan’s medal tally at the World Games rose to 10 with the result, five silvers and five bronzes after 130 of the Games’ 223 events.
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