Tien-Mou/Taipei City. The defending champion is back in the Gold Medal Game at the 12U Baseball World Cup. Chinese Taipei stunned Venezuela 8-0 on Saturday afternoon to book a final with Team USA on Sunday afternoon. Venezuela, which had won all seven games they played so far in the tournament, has to settle for the Bronze Medal Game like in 2011.
Chinese Taipei’s key player in the game was starting pitcher Po-Chun Chen. The left-hander dominated the Venezuelan bats throughout nearly the entire game. He went 5 2/3 innings, allowing just two hits and a walk. He changed speeds and threw all of his pitches for strikes to keep Venezuela off balance, reaching 75 MPH (120 KPH) in the sixth inning. He struck out 10 to cap his strong start. An infield single concluded his day. Chih-Heng Chiu came in to close it out, but catcher Meng-Che Lee finished the game with a strong throw to second, as a caught stealing delivered the last out.
On offense once again shortstop and leadoff hitter Chih-Chun Chen set the tone. He led off the game with an opposite solo home run over the fence in left-center field off Venezuela’s ace Aaron Bracho. This gave the host offense the confidence to come through against the hard-throwing right-hander. With two runs in the third and three in the fourth, Team CT blew the score open en route to the victory and into the finals.
Po-Chun Chen not only excelled on the mound, but also at the plate. He led all batters with three RBI. Chun-Hao Ma went 3-for-4 with three runs scored. Chih-Chun Chen crossed the plate twice. Chih-Heng Chiu drove in two. Gabriel Moncado and Ricardo van Grieken had the lone hits for Venezuela. Aaron Bracho took the loss, conceding six hits, five runs (4 ER) and three walks in 3 1/3 innings.
The Gold Medal Game is scheduled for Sunday at 2pm at Tien-Mou Stadium in Taipei City. Chinese Taipei will take on Team USA, which had defeated Japan on Saturday morning. Venezuela, which claimed Bronze in 2011 with a victory over Mexico, will square off with Japan in the game for third place on Sunday morning.
