Previously undefeated Taiwan suffered its first setback on Thursday at the IV WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup after succumbing to consecutive South Korean squeeze plays in the second inning that proved too much for the host to recover from.
Competing under “Chinese Taipei,” Taiwan fell to South Korea 6-2 and now, with its 2-1 record, it’s tied for second place in the Super Round standings with two other national teams after the first day of the Super Round held in the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium.
Both Taiwan and South Korea swept their respective groups, 5-0, in the round-robin opening round and carried over head-to-head results into the Super Round.
The second inning’s top frame on Thursday saw South Korea’s predatory instincts kick into gear, loading themselves on all bases before catcher Son Seongbin singled to center field for center fielder Yoon Donghee to mark the scoreboard with the first run of the game.
South Korean shortstop Kim Hanbyul executed a squeeze bunt off the bat of starter Chuang Hsin-yen (莊昕諺) to land a couple of steps from home plate.
From there, the Taiwanese pitcher sent the ball beyond home plate when he tried to scoop the ball, allowing South Koreans, right fielder Cho Sejin and second baseman Kim Taeyun, to extend their lead with two more runs.
Wang Yan-cheng (王彥程) replaced Chuang on the mound but was met with another bunt by third baseman Yang Seunghyeok, which helped Son to score and complete South Korea’s four-run blitz.
Taiwan answered back in the bottom of the second when designated hitter Yang Jyun-siang (楊竣翔) scored following a wild pitch off South Korean starter Kim Dohyun and shortstop Lin Yueh-ku singled through the left side for second baseman Chen Sheng-ping (陳聖平) to score, narrowing the gap 4-2.
South Korea added another run in the top of the fourth inning after Yang Seunghyeok singled to center field for Son to score. The score was capped at 6-2 in the top of the sixth inning after Son singled through the left side for right fielder Cho Sejin to score.
Hsieh Chen-hsun (謝承勳), Taiwan’s manager, said after the game that there were many opportunities during the matchup that his team failed to grasp.
“Seven innings go by very quickly. A single error might be the turning point of the game,” Hsieh said.
However, Hsieh still tried to pull together his team’s confidence, asking his players to keep their heads up.
“We lost one game, but we still have two more games. What’s passed is past, go back and get some rest. Make adjustments and that will be enough,” he said.
Joined by Australia, Japan, Mexico, and Colombia, a total of six teams are competing in the Super Round, which will run until Saturday, before the championship game takes place on Sunday. Taiwan will next face Mexico on Friday at Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium.
The tournament originally kicked off with 12 teams that were divided into two groups for the round-robin first round. Taiwan, South Africa, Venezuela, Japan, Colombia and Germany were in group A, while Australia, Cuba, South Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands and Puerto Rico were in group B.
The top three teams of each group advanced into the Super Round. The top and second team of the Super Round will play for the champion title, while the third and fourth will play in the bronze medal game.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel