XXXI WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup Day 9: Chinese Taipei shut out Netherlands, will play Japan for U-18 world title
The XXXI WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup has two finalists. Day 9 results qualified Chinese Taipei and Japan for the World Championship final on Sunday, 10 September.
Japan beat Puerto Rico in the first game at Tianmu Stadium in Taipei City. In the afternoon, the United States beat Korea, and Chinese Taipei shut out the Netherlands in the night game.
Chinese Taipei maintained their perfect record and will finish in first place. Japan (3-1) will play the hosts in the final game of the Super Round. They could tie Chinese Taipei in first place with a win in the last game on Saturday, 9 September. In that case, Japan would be the first-place finisher of the Super Round thanks to the head-to-head.
Defending champions the United States (2-2) will play Puerto Rico, and they could end up tied with world No. 1 Japan. In this case, Japan would advance thanks to the head-to-head win in the Opening Round.
Day 10 games will determine the teams for the bronze medal game.
Scroll to the end of the page to access results, box scores and game report of the Placement Round and Group A games.
Super Round Results
| Japan-Puerto Rico | 10-0 (5 innings) | BOX SCORE | GAME REPORT |
| USA-Korea | 5-1 | BOX SCORE | GAME REPORT |
| Chinese Taipei- Netherlands | 6-0 | BOX SCORE | GAME REPORT |
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Chinese Taipei-Netherlands
For five innings, it was a pitching duel between left-handers Wei En Lin and Gijs Van den Brink. Chinese Taipei took the lead in the bottom of the fourth and opened the score against the Dutch bullpen.
Starting pitchers Wei En Lin and Gijs Van den Brink worked three quick scoreless innings.
The Dutch left-hander allowed a couple of walks but had his defence take care of the rest.
The Chinese Taipei lefty retired the none batters he faced. He struck out the side in the third.
Chinese Taipei took the lead in the bottom of the fourth. Third baseman Keegan Pieternella fielded a slow roller well but could not prevent Ching Hsien Ko from scoring.
Dutch relievers Isaac Mendez, Tobias Imming and Maarten Smit allowed five walks in the bottom of the fifth. Meng Chih Hu added an RBI single to extend the lead to 5-0.
Ching Hsien Ko hit an RBI single off Keyon Ashby, the fifth Dutch pitcher, to make it 6-0.
USA-Korea 5-1
Korea took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fifth and the US reversed it on a pair of clutch hits by Derek Curiel and Perry Morlando. Hard-throwing reliever Trey Gregory-Alford took the mound with the tying run at the plate and got out of the jam.
Korea took the lead in the top of the fourth. Second baseman Anseok Jeong reached on a leadoff single, the first hit allowed by USA starter Ethan Schiefelbein. He advanced on a sacrifice bunt, reached third on a groundout and scored on an infield single by second baseman Hyunmin Cho.
The US reversed the lead in the bottom of the fifth. Derek Curiel got to left-hander Junseo Hwang with a two-out and two-RBI double.
They extended the lead to 4-1 on a two-RBI single by Perry Morlando.
Hard-throwing reliever Trey Gregory-Alford took the mound with runners at second and first and no one out in the top of the sixth and got the final six outs.
The US manufactured an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth.
Japan-Puerto Rico 10-0
Despite some creative base running, Japan needed only five innings to shut out Puerto Rico. The U-18 Samurai recorded 13 hits. Starting pitcher Aoi Higashionna used 53 pitches, 37 for strikes, to retire all the 15 batters he faced, five on strikes.
Japan took the lead in the bottom of the second on a one-out and two-RBI single by designated hitter Riku Takeda.
Japa added a run in the bottom of the third, despite losing a runner at third.
Yuzuki Nakayama scored on a two-out double by Minato Maruta in the bottom of the third and added a run on an RBI single by Ren Ogata in the fourth.
Japan closed the game with a six-run fifth at bat. Three Puerto Rican pitchers couldn't avoid the mercy rule despite getting an out at home on a well-executed trap.
Japan's starter Aoi Higashionna was perfect over five innings. He used 53 pitches, 37 for strikes. Five of his 15 outs were on strikes.
Mexico beat Czechia in the first game of the day, a makeup of game # 3 of the opening round, determining Group A's final standings and updating the Placement Round's standings.
| Mexico-Czechia | 4-1 | BOX SCORE | GAME REPORT |
Placement Round Schedule
| Mexico-Spain | 6-5 | BOX SCORE | GAME REPORT |
| Panama-Czechia | 4-1 | BOX SCORE | GAME REPORT |
| Venezuela @ Australia | PPD | rescheduled | 9 September |
- On Day 8: Chinese Taipei shut out USA, remain only undefeated team
- On Day 7: Chinese Taipei finish undefeated, two games postponed
- On Day 6: USA, JPN, NED tied, KOR to Super Round, TPE-PUR postponed
- On Day 5: Chinese Taipei, Japan, USA, Netherlands and Puerto Rico advance to Super Round
- On Day 4: Chinese Taipei and Japan lead respective groups undefeated
- On Day 3: Chinese Taipei, Japan, USA earn second win
- On Day 2: USA, Panama and Japan win, two games postponed
- On Day 1: Chinese Taipei shut out Australia
