Taiwan’s men’s baseball team yesterday took home a bronze medal in the World Baseball Softball Confederation’s U-18 Baseball World Cup, after clinching a nail-biting 3-2 victory over South Korea following an overturned call in the tournament held in Okinawa, Japan.
With the score tied 2-2 in the top of the seventh, Taiwanese catcher Jiang Ting-yi drove in the game-winning run with a two-out single, sending home third-baseman Zeng Sheng-en.
Zeng was originally ruled out. However, Taiwan asked for a review. The play was overturned and ruled an obstruction, as the umpire determined that the South Korean catcher had blocked Zeng’s path to the home plate without possession of the ball.
Photo: CNA
Reliever Su Lan-hong retired the final three South Korean batters in the bottom of the inning to hold on for the win.
The victory gave Taiwan their eighth bronze medal in the U-18 Baseball World Cup, which features players aged 16 to 18, since the tournament was first held in 1981.
Taiwan manager Liao Hung-yuan told reporters following the victory that the whole team were doing their best defensively and offensively. He gave high praise to all his players for showing strong determination to win.
Jiang, who delivered the game-winning RBI single, told reporters that he was not particularly nervous despite it being a clutch moment, as he had faced similar pressure before.
“With a runner in scoring position, I did not think the pitcher would throw me a fastball, so I focused instead on hitting a breaking ball,” he said.
Taiwan are three-time champions at the tournament and last won gold in 2019.
The bronze medal match yesterday morning was a back-and-forth game.
South Korea designated hitter Kim Geon-whi smacked a solo home run off Taiwan’s starter Liu Jen-yu in the bottom of the second inning, giving the South Korean team an early 1-0 lead.
Coming from behind, Taiwan managed to tie the score at 1-1 before taking a 2-1 lead with three hits in the top of the fifth. The resilient South Korean team later tied the game at 2-2 in the bottom of the sixth on a walk, a stolen base and a timely hit by Kim.
Meanwhile, the US defeated hosts Japan 2-0 in the final.
The standings for this year’s U-18 from fifth to 12th place are: Puerto Rico, Panama, Cuba, Australia, Italy, Germany, China and South Africa.
Nottingham Forest FC are to go into the Europa League play-off round after a 4-0 win over Ferencvaros TC on Thursday, while Celtic FC secured their place in the knockout phase with a victory over FC Utrecht. Aston Villa FC finished second in the league phase after recovering from two goals down to beat FC Red Bull Salzburg 3-2 with their spot in the last 16 already assured. Forest stood an outside chance of climbing into the top eight going into the final round of matches, but needed to beat Robbie Keane’s Ferencvaros and rely on other results going their way. Sean Dyche’s
HEATED RIVALRY: The pair had met 14 times previously, with Sabalenka winning eight of the encounters and entering the final as the favorite to take the title Elena Rybakina took revenge over world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka to win a nail-biting Australian Open final yesterday and clinch her second Grand Slam title. The big-serving Kazakh fifth seed held her nerve to pull through 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne in 2 hours, 18 minutes. It was payback after the Belarusian Sabalenka won the 2023 final between two of the hardest hitters in women’s tennis. The ice-cool Rybakina, 26, who was born in Moscow, adds her Melbourne triumph to her Wimbledon win in 2022. It was more disappointment in a major final for Sabalenka, who won the US Open
Denver superstar Nikola Jokic returned from a 16-game injury absence to post a 31-point, 12-rebound double-double on Friday and propel the Nuggets to a 122-109 NBA victory over the Los Angeles Clippers. Three-time NBA Most Valuable Player Jokic had not played since suffering a bone bruise in the left knee he hyperextended in a game against Miami on Dec. 29 last year. The Serbian big man did not miss a beat. He led all scorers, connecting on eight of 11 shots from the field, and also handed out five assists with three steals while playing just 24 minutes, 32 seconds as the
BATTERED AND BRUISED: Alcaraz suffered a cramp in the third set, but was allowed treatment despite Zverev’s protests, and continued on to win in five-and-a-half hours An ailing Carlos Alcaraz battled past Alexander Zverev yesterday in five epic sets to reach his first Australian Open final and move within a match of becoming the youngest man to complete a career Grand Slam. The world No. 1 outlasted the German third seed 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-7 (3/7), 6-7 (4/7), 7-5 over a titanic 5 hours, 27 minutes in hot conditions to head to tomorrow’s title match. He only narrowly avoided crashing out after a huge fright at 4-4 in the third set when he pulled up in pain with what appeared to be cramp. He was allowed to have treatment
RSS