INTERCONTINENTAL STADIUM. Chinese Taipei improved to 2-1 at the XXVI 18U Baseball World Cup in Taichung thanks to a 4-2 victory in a thriller against Canada on Monday evening. The tournament hosts prevailed in the nail-biter at Intercontinental Stadium thanks to a couple of timely hits and good defensive plays.
Chinese Taipei got through against Canada early, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on a RBI fielder’s choice by Cheng-Tang Wang. In the fourth it was Wang who would double the score by crossing the plate on a passed ball. A RBI single by Chia-Wei Yang made it 3-0 in the fifth.
Canada, which couldn’t do much in the first few frames, tried to rally in the bottom half of the fifth. They loaded the bases with one out on a couple of singles and an error. After an infield fly the slugging Tyler O’Neill stepped to the plate and doubled to right field.
Toby Handley and Owen Spiwak would score. Chris Thibideau tried to do the same, but got thrown out at the plate. Two frames later Handley got thrown out at the plate on a groundball to short, as Canada missed on another scoring opportunity.
Chinese Taipei added an insurance run in the top of the ninth on a RBI single by Chia-Wei Yang. Wen-Hua Sung followed to cap his three-inning save by striking out the side in the bottom half, sealing the win.
Cheng-Hsien Lin picked up the win, allowing just six hits and two unearned runs in six innings, while striking out five. Sung issued just one more hit the rest of the way. Travis Seabrooke on the other hand, conceded six hits, three runs (2 ER) and three base on balls in six innings in the loss.
Canada now tries to get back to .500 on Tuesday in a matchup against Mexico at Dou-Liou Stadium in the afternoon. Chinese Taipei squares off with Venezuela once again at Intercontinental Stadium.
