Seoul (Korea). After celebrating twice on the first two days, Canada was on the wrong end of a walk-off win on Sunday evening at Mokdong Stadium. Chinese Taipei rallied from a 0-5 deficit to win 6-5 on a walk-off RBI single by Chih Chieh Su with two outs in the bottom of the ninth. Both teams are 2-1 in Group B, still with chances to reach the final round.
Even though Chinese Taipei put a submarine pitcher on the mound, the Canadian offense clicked from the start. After getting thrown out at the plate in the first, a RBI single by Owen Spiwak got them on the board in the first. Another run followed on a sac fly by Joshua Naylor one batter later. Nathan Desouza and Brett Siddall made it 4-0 in the third. Mitchell Triolo highlighted the early rampage by Canada with a solo homerun to left center field in the fifth.
Chinese Taipei couldn’t do much against Cal Quantrill early on. The son of former Major League reliever Paul Quantrill, cruised through his start, getting only in trouble with two outs in the fifth. The defending 18U Baseball World Champion loaded the bases with consecutive singles and Yu Pin Sen came through with a two-run single to right. This ended the shutout bid for Quantrill, who allowed two runs on seven hits and one walk in 7 1/3 innings overall.
Quantrill left with a runner on first and one out in the eighth. Travis Seabrooke took over, but couldn’t find the strikezone, loading the bases with a pair of walks. Manager Greg Hamilton reacted promptly, bringing in Logan Seifrit to clean up the mess. But after a strikeout he gave up singles to Yu Ming Chen and Chia Wei Yang to plate three runs before escaping from the inning.
With the game tied at 5-5 both teams entered the ninth inning. Canada failed to transform two runners on second and third into anything productive, as Chinese Taipei’s shortstop Tzu Wei Lin threw out Daniel Pinero at the plate. In the bottom half of the frame Tsung Hsien Lee reached with a one-out walk, moved to second on a sac bunt and eventually scored the winning run on the walk-off single by Chih Chieh Su.
