Chinese Taipei’s pitching staff allowed just six runs during the entire Opening Round of the U-23 Baseball World Cup. After taking advantage of some uncharacteristic mistakes, Colombia plated nearly that many runs against them in the opening game of the Super Round.
World No. 15 Colombia rallied from deficits of two runs down twice and brought in its final tallies on a bases-loaded walk and hit batsman to come from behind and capture a 5-4 win over No. 3 Chinese Taipei in Wednesday’s Super Round-opening contest at Estadio Sonora in Hermosillo.
Chinese Taipei entered the Super Round at 0-2, carrying over the results of its Opening Round losses to fellow Group A advancing teams Mexico and Cuba, so the world No. 3 needed a win to keep its world championship hopes alive on Wednesday. The urgency showed. Just past 10:30 on Wednesday morning contest, Chen-Tso Tseng ambushed a first-pitch fastball by Colombia starter Elkin Alcala and belted it over the left-field wall to give Chinese Taipei a 1-0 lead.
"I never overlook a first pitch. This one was a pretty good one to hit," said Chen through an interpreter, "So I went for it."
In the second, Jen-Ching Shen whacked
the first pitch to center for a leadoff single, went to second on a pickoff
attempt throwing error by Colombia catcher Gustavo Campero, to third on a
single to right by Wen-Han Chang and home on I-Wei Li’s sacrifice fly to
center.
Colombia’s powerful offense, which exited the Opening Round with a .290 team average, second-best in the tournament, got started in the second. After their first four batters struck out against Chinese Taipei starter Zhong-Ao Zhuang-Chen, Colombia’s Andres Angulo singled through the left side, and Brayan Buelvas followed with a two-run homer to center to tie the game.
"It was great we could come back twice. This was a real team effort," commented Buelva, a 19-year old Oakland A'S top prospect. "I feel really well with these guys. We always describe ourselves with the word armonia." It would be translated into English as unity or oneness.
The even score didn’t last long with
Chinese Taipei scoring twice in the third on a Colombia error and an RBI
groundout by Shen. That would be the visitors’ last offensive highlight of the
day.
After Lin led off the fourth with a
single, no Chinese Taipei hitter reached base. Thanks to a double play that
erased Li to end the fourth, Colombia pitchers faced the minimum for the game’s
final four innings, retiring 11 straight after Li’s hit through the end of the
contest. Relievers Luis De Avila, Sergio Palacio, and Jhon Peluffo yielded just
two hits and no walks while combining to strike out four over 4 2/3 innings.
Colombia’s bats made sure the effort
didn’t go to waste. After Jordan Diaz belted a one-out solo homer to left in
the third to get his team back to within a run, Colombia took over in the
fifth. With one out, Campero singled against starter Zhuang-Chen, and Diaz
followed with a walk from reliever Hao-Chun Cheng. The righty then hit Jesus
Marriaga with a pitch to load the bases and walked in the game-tying run by
putting Leandro Emiliani on with a free pass.
Wen-Hui Pan entered from the bullpen and immediately plunked Angulo to force in the eventual game-winning run.
"I looked at our starter's pitch count," commented through an interpreter Chinese Taipei manager Shih-hsin Wu. "I decided it was time to make a change. Unfortunately, it didn't work."
Palacio and Peluffo made it stand. After
Palacio retired eight in a row to finish his day, Peluffo set down the Chinese
Taipei side in order in the seventh, striking out the final two batters to earn
the save.
Now 0-3 in the Super Round standings, Chinese Taipei will face Panama on Thursday at 15:00.
"Coming back from 0-3 is going to be difficult," added Wu."Still, I'm positive my players will fight hard to win the remaining two games."
Colombia moves to 2-1 to take on Cuba in the morning contest at 10:30 in Hermosillo.
"We are aiming at a medal," said Colombia's manager Jose Mosquera. "We need to be confident in what we can do, no matter who we face."
