Taipei City. Four teams are left in the race to win the Gold Medal at the II 12U Baseball World Cup in Taipei City. Defending champion Chinese Taipei stays on course, defeating Korea in the quarterfinals by a strong outing by their starting pitcher and the heroics of their shortstop. They will meet with Venezuela, which needed a pair of two-run doubles to decide the outcome against Mexico.
In the second semi-final the United States and Japan will square off. The US squad shut out Brazil thanks to a combined effort on the mound, strong defense and a couple of runs against a strong pitcher. Japan scored early and then defended their lead in a win over Panama to reach the semifinals for a first time.
For Korea, Mexico, Panama and Brazil the tournament isn’t yet over. They will play out places five to eight in a classification round. On Saturday Mexico and Korea will face each other in the morning, Brazil and Panama in the afternoon.
Venezuela 5 – Mexico 3
Two-run doubles by Sander Mora and Carlos Fernandez sparked Venezuela in a 5-3 win over Mexico in the first quarterfinal on Friday morning at Tien-Mou Stadium. They provided four of the five decisive runs in the fourth and fifth to seal the win. Mexico tried to come back in the end, but Aaron Bracho struck out Jesus Castillo with runners on first and second in the sixth. Kevin Garcia went 3-for-3 with a home run, but got stranded on the on-deck circle at the end.
USA 2 – Brazil 0
Team USA shut out Brazil 2-0 in the quarterfinal played at Youth Park on Friday afternoon. Andrew Pintar, Anthony Hall and Justin Campbell combined to keep the South Americans to two hits and four walks in six scoreless innings. Joseph Naranjo scored the first run on an error in the second. Colton Olasin provided the second with a solo home run in the fifth. Eric Taniguchi kept the Americans bats in check, but didn’t receive any run support for an upset.
Japan 4 – Panama 2
In the third quarterfinals, played on Friday afternoon at Tien-Mou Stadium, Japan defeated Panama 4-2 to reach the semis. The still undefeated team used four runs in the first two innings to get an early lead. Tomoharu Moriya and Taiyo Ueda had crucial two-run hits. Afterwards Panama only was able to avoid a shutout with two runs in the third, but otherwise wasn’t able to convert any of the plenty of scoring opportunities they had. Hidemasa Takamizu and Shota Sawamura pitched around five hits, four walks and three errors by the Japanese defense.
Chinese Taipei 3 – Korea 1
Ching-Chieh Chen allowed just two hits in a complete game win to lead Chinese Taipei to a 3-1 win over Korea in the fourth quarterfinal on Friday night at Tien-Mou Stadium. Two runs in the third and an insurance run in the fifth sealed the victory. Shortstop Chih-Chun Chen scored two of the three runs and also made a great play on defense, turning an inning-ending double play after a sliding catch in foul territory.
Schedule
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Semi-Finals:
10:00 USA – Japan (Tien-Mou)
14:00 Venezuela – Chinese Taipei (Tien-Mou)
Classification Round:
10:00 Mexico – Korea (Youth Park)
14:00 Brazil – Panama (Youth Park)
(all times local)
