By Jason Pan, in Chinese Taipei
Led by head manager Lu Wen-Sheng, the Jiangsu Hope Stars tasted first victory for Chinese teams on Friday, at the Cross-Strait Baseball Challenge tourney taking place in Taipei City this past week.
Staring pitcher Zhang Xiang tossed a gem, while his team pushed two runs across in the fifth inning, for Jiangsu to edge fellow Chinese club Sichuan Dragons by the score of 2-1.
Zhang pitched 7 2/3 frames for seven strikeouts, yielding only two hits and one unearned run to pocket this crucial win.
Jiangsu’s head manager Lu, the former skipper for CPBL’s Uni-President Lions, was happy to wrap up his team’s first triumph in this competition.
“We have a competitive team, with tight defense, and some good hitters. But our pitching is not so strong, the pitching rotation has rooms for improvement. They can pick up experience and learn more skills at this tournament,” said Lu after the game.
In other action on Friday, Tianjin Lions of China also had the winning feeling, as they defeated Guangdong Leopards 7-5 in another closely fought contest.
For the Chinese Taipei side, Co-operative Bank blanked Taipei City 5-0, while New Taipei City crushed Taipower team 8-1.
This annual tournament is a joint effort for baseball development and exchange between China and Chinese Taipei.
It is organized by CTBA of Chinese Taipei, and CBL (Chinese Baseball League) of China. For the adult baseball division, four teams from China are challenging four Taiwanese teams.
In the Little League level of this tourney, there are two entries from China, three from Chinese Taipei, and one from Hong Kong.
Hosted at Taipei City’s Tianmu Stadium, the games started on Oct. 24, with the finals on Oct. 28.
