Day 1 of the Baseball tournament at the Summer Universiade offered a couple of surprises as Czech Republic defeated (4-3) Korea and France beat (4-3) the hosts Chinese Taipei. USA had to wait until the eigth inning to break the score open and win (3-2) against Mexico. The only open score came from the 19-0 win by Japan (18 hits) over Russia (5 defensive errors).
France backed a solid outing by Owen Ozanich, a pitcher who represented his Nation in major international tournaments and competed for Europe in the Asia Winter League, with a dramatic come back in the ninth. They took full advantage of 2 defensive errors by Chinese Taipei.
Czech Republic also scored the go ahead run in the ninth. Josef Cihlar pitched a scoreless bottom hald of the frame, while Jan Novak gave his team a solid 7 inning start. Left fielder Matej Hejma provided 3 hits and batted in 3 runs.
A sacrifice fly by Tyler Cropley and an RBI single by Brett Mc Cleary gave USA the lead in the eigth and Zach Daniels pitched 2 innings in relief to claim the win.
Day 2 games will be played on Tuesday 22 August. Below the schedule (al times local, i.e. CET + 6 hours, US East Coast +12):
11 am Korea-France
11 am Mexico-Japan
6.30 pm Czech Republic-Chinese Taipei
6.30 pm USA-Russia
