South Korea pipped Taiwan in extra innings at the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in Florida on Friday after the pitchers from both sides dominated the seven regular innings.
South Korea — whose win created a three-way logjam at the top of the super round table and a potential rulebook examination to decide who the two top teams are to contest the final to be played early on Monday morning Taiwan time — scored three runs in the top of the eighth innings, while Taiwan could only manage two in the bottom half of the frame, the final out coming with the tying run rounding third base.
Taiwan, South Korea and the US all had three wins and one loss in the super round standings before the final round of games, with some points carried over from the opening round.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan’s game at LECOM Park in Bradenton was interrupted by rain after five innings.
Taiwan starting pitcher Huang Pao-lo and South Korea’s Hwang Jun-seo dominated the pre-break play, with Huang allowing only two hits over five innings.
The two starters were replaced after the two-hour rain delay, with the relievers showing themselves to be just as effective. South Korea’s Kim Seo-hyeon and Lin Po-chun of Taiwan forced the extra innings.
Photo: CNA
Wu Yu-cheng took over from Lin for the extra inning, which started with runners on first and second base, but Kim took the win by allowing one fewer run.
Wu got the first out in the top of the eighth as Park Hang-yeol bunted to advance the runners.
Pinch hitter Kim Jae-sang hit a hard chopper to third, where Huang Chieh-hsi made a diving stop, but threw away from first base, allowing a run. A second run was scored on a groundout and Jeong Jun-young made it 3-0 with a base hit.
In the bottom half of the frame, Chiu Hsin led off with a single to load the bases. With two outs, Huang Hsi-chieh hit a bloop single to right field, driving in two runs.
With Zheng Jun-wei rounding third, Huang Hsi-chieh tried to reach second, but was caught between shortstop Kim Jae-sang and first baseman Kim Min-suk and tagged, ending the game.
Taiwan were to play the Netherlands (1-3) in their final super round game after press time last night, while South Korea were to play Mexico (0-4) and Japan (2-2) faced the US (3-1).
The WBSC’s tie-break rules showed that if Taiwan, South Korea and the US all won overnight, leaving them with identical 4-1 records, “the team that won the game between the teams tied shall be given the higher position.”
With South Korea having beaten Taiwan, Taiwan previously beating the US and the US topping South Korea in the opening round, the Team Quality Balance (TQB) records would decide the top two teams to play in the final.
The organizers defined TQB as runs scored divided by innings played at bat minus the runs allowed divided by innings played on defense.
If TQB does not separate the teams, then earned runs, batting averages and ultimately a coin flip would decide team ranks.
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