18U BWC: Chinese Taipei downs Colombia on Friday

07/09/2012

Seoul (Korea). Defending champion Chinese Taipei is going to play for bronze at the XXV IBAF 18U Baseball World Championship in Seoul, Korea on Saturday. On Friday morning they defeated Colombia 3-1 behind a strong pitching performance. Improving to 3-2 they are still not able to reach the Gold Medal Game due to the tiebreakers following their results from earlier in the tournament against Canada, USA and Japan.

Seoul (Korea). Defending champion Chinese Taipei is going to play for bronze at the XXV IBAF 18U Baseball World Championship in Seoul, Korea on Saturday. On Friday morning they defeated Colombia 3-1 behind a strong pitching performance. Improving to 3-2 they are still not able to reach the Gold Medal Game due to the tiebreakers following their results from earlier in the tournament against Canada, USA and Japan.

While the final results indicate a tight pitcher’s duel, it didn’t start that way. Colombia opened the scoring in the top of the first. Yair Morelos led off with a single on the third pitch of the game. He moved to second on a sac bunt and scored thanks to a single by Cristian Cano. Cano moved up on the throw and wanted to score from second on a groundout, but was thrown out at the plate to end the inning with a double play.

Chinese Taipei answered right away. Their first three batters came through with consecutive singles to load the bases. A wild pitch allowed Tzu Wei Lin to score from third to tie the game. A RBI groundout by Chia Wei Yang got them even up in front. In the second frame Tzu Wei Lin made it 3-1 with a two-out RBI double, confirming his status has highly regarded shortstop. The 18-year-old had signed for $2.05 million with the Boston Red Sox at the end of June. In 2010 he was named Most Valuable Player of the 2010 IBAF 18U Baseball World Championship in Thunder Bay, Canada, leading his team to the title.

Jung Hung Sen settled down after the difficult first inning and gave up just three hits, a run and a walk in eight innings total. He retired 21 of the last 23 batters he faced, the last 15 in a row. Twice he stranded Colombian runners on third base. Jen Ho Tseng entered for him in the ninth and pitched around another leadoff single by Morelos to close it out.

Colombia had good pitching as well. Edgardo Hernandez still ended up with the loss after his struggles in the beginning, issuing five hits, three runs and two walks in five innings. Dewin Perez kept the scoreboard clean in the last three frames, but due to the drought by his teammates at the plate, it didn’t change the outcome.