Tien-Mou/Taipei City. Chinese Taipei concluded the first round at the II 12U Baseball World Cup with an 11-0 shutout over Italy on Thursday evening at Tien-Mou Stadium in Taipei City. Two early home runs and a six-run sixth lifted the tournament host to its fifth win in the sixth game. For Italy the game ended the event with a 2-4 record.
Chinese Taipei was sparked by leadoff hitter Chih-Chun Chen who homered in his first two at-bats of the night and went 3-for-4 with three runs and three RBI overall. Po-Wei Wu drove in two. On the mound Sheng-Hong Wu, Ching-Yu Huang and Ding-Hong Guo combined to keep Italy to a first-inning single and a walk in the fourth.
Italy couldn’t challenge the defending champion in the game even though they were able to keep the score relatively close through the first five innings. Samuele Galli, Tara Melassi and Samuele Catalano shared the workload as pitchers. Gabriele Marras had Italy’s lone hit of the game, singling with one out in the opening period.
While for Italy the tournament is over, Chinese Taipei advances to the final round, taking on Korea in the quarterfinals on Friday. They will meet their Asian rivals at 6.30pm at Tien-Mou Stadium.
