by Jason Pan, in Chinese Taipei
In the finals of Chinese Taipei 12U baseball tournament, Taipei City team overwhelmed the challenger from Kaohsiung City 13-1 to capture the 2012 Herbalife Cup.
Taipei City scored 7 runs on 6 hits and one walk in the opening frame to build up the big lead. They got 3 more runs against the tired Kaohsiung pitchers in the 2nd inning.
When Taipei’s second baseman Ho Hong-Yi blasted a three-run homer to make it 13-1 in bottom of 4th inning, the game was called, according to the “10-run Mercy Rule”.
Taipei starting pitcher Sun Yi-Shen got the win on 3 strike-outs and 3 walks, giving up one unearned run through 4 innings.
For the losing finalist, Kaohsiung City, they have done very well but ran out of steam in the end during this 2012 Chinese Taipei U12 Herbalife Cup tournament.
Heavy rain caused postponement of quarter-finals and semi-finals, with the re-configured schedule saw Kaohsiung City having to play two crucial games in the last day.
Kaohsiung City first had to defeat Taichung City 11-4 in the morning, thus advancing to the final against Taipei City in the afternoon.
Two consecutive games in one day proved too much for the 12U kids, as fatigue set in for players and lost the final by the 13-1 wide margin.
Sun Yi-Shen, winning pitcher for Taipei City and also a strong hitter, is the big awards winner.
Already grown to over 170 cm and 50-plus kg, the sixth grader Sun garnered the tournament MVP Award, and also honors for Best Pitcher Award (2 wins, 00 ERA), Most RBI’s (with 13), and Most Home Runs (with 5). He is now a highly-touted “Future Star” of Taiwanese baseball.
In the press interview after the game, Taipei City team head manager Lai Min-Nan said, “Yes, Sun is our MVP for sure, but to win this competition, we needed collective team efforts, and we got great contribution from every player. ”
About the final opponent, he said, “We had faced Kaohsiung City before, and had defeated them, so our team had very good confidence going into this game. This is also one of the key factors for our victory today.”
A squad composed of mainly the Taipei City team will represent Chinese Taipei to participate in the BFA (Baseball Federation of Asia) 12U Asian Championship, which is taking place in Chengdu, China from Aug. 16 to 23.
