Taiwan’s junior national baseball team remained undefeated and advanced to the Super Round of the U-23 Baseball World Cup on Tuesday after a nail-biting 4-3 win against defending champions Venezuela.
Competing under “Chinese Taipei,” the Taiwan team was the first to put a run on the scoreboard after first baseman Li I-wei (李亦崴) singled to right field for center fielder Tseng Chen-tso (曾宸佐) to score in the bottom of the first inning.
Venezuela answered in the top of the second inning with a single RBI by left fielder Cesar Cesar, who singled through the left side, for designated hitter Ezequie Alfonzo to make it back to the home plate.
The defending champions added another run to their tally to make it 2-1 after first baseman Jesús Chirinos homered off reliever Ba Qing-shao (巴青少) to deep left field at the top of the third inning.
Taiwan retook the lead 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth when short stop Yang Jyun-siang (楊竣翔) singled through the left side for left fielder Yen Kuo-chin (顏國晉) to score, followed by another RBI by Tseng, who singled to center field for pinch runner and short stop Lin Yueh-ku (林岳谷) to score.
However, just when fans thought it was going to be a seven-inning game, Venezuela’s Chirinos forced an extra inning with another RBI homer off reliever Guo Ding-hong (郭定泓) which went deep into the right field to tie the game at 3-3.
Taiwan’s superb defense prevented Venezuela from scoring in the top of the eighth before loading all bases in the bottom inning.
From there, Tseng singled to center field for designated hitter Ji Cing-ran (紀慶然) to make it back to home plate and win the game 4-3.
With the latest triumph, Taiwan has a 5-0 record in the opening round and will advance to the Super Round as the top seed from Group A.
A total of 12 teams are participating in the competition, which is divided into two groups for the round-robin first round. Taiwan and Venezuela were joined by Japan, Colombia, South Africa, and Germany in group A, while Australia, Cuba, South Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands and Puerto Rico made up group B.
Taiwan defeated South Africa 14-1 Monday, Colombia 6-2 on Thursday, Germany 3-0 on Saturday, and Japan 3-1 on Sunday. The country will next meet the top seed from Group B on Thursday in the Super Round.
The biennial, professional-level, national team tournament is being held at Taichung International Baseball Stadium, Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium and Douliou Baseball Stadium in Yunlin County.
The tournament is currently in its fourth edition after events in 2016, 2018 and 2020. Venezula were the champions in 2020.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel