Taiwan’s junior national baseball team suffered its second consecutive defeat in the Super Round of the U-23 Baseball World Cup on Friday, losing 2-1 in eight innings to Mexico, leaving the hosts unable to advance to the champion match.

Competing under “Chinese Taipei,” Taiwan dropped from its tied second place to fourth in the Super Round standings after its latest defeat, holding a 2-2 record and trailing Japan, South Korea, and Mexico, which are all tied in first place with 3-1.

At Taipei’s Tianmu Baseball Stadium on Friday, Taiwan was quick to put up its first and only run on the scoreboard in the bottom of the first inning when outfielder Tseng Song-en (曾頌恩) doubled off Mexico’s starter Jordan Miranda Suarez to deep center field for infielder Li I-Wei (李亦崴) to score.

Mexico evened out the score in the top of the fifth when second baseman Jose Oliver Zepeda Hernandez singled to left field off Taiwan’s flame thrower Zhuang-Chen Zhong-ao (莊陳仲敖) for first baseman Christopher Escarrega Martinez to score.

In the top of the extra eighth inning, Mexico found its opportunity to take the lead with an RBI single through the left side by pinch hitter Ruben Zayed Salinas Hernandez off reliever Hsu Chi-ling (徐基麟) for second baseman Jose Oliver Zepeda Hernandez to make it back to the home plate, taking the scoreboard up to 2-1.

Taiwan failed to secure any runs in the bottom of the extra inning and hence conceded the game.

Hsieh Chen-hsun (謝承勳), the Taiwan team’s manager, said after the game that his players showed that they played hard on the field and that high tension games can make young players grow.

Speaking about the team applying more short ranged hits in the first five innings, Hsieh said it is because the current team does not have long-range hitters so it had to rely on strategies to score runs.

With only one more remaining game left in the Super Round, Taiwan will face Australia on Saturday at Taipei’s Tianmu Baseball Stadium.

Also joined by Colombia, a total of six teams are competing in the Super Round, which followed the opening round.

The tournament originally kicked off with 12 teams that were divided into two groups for the round-robin first round. Taiwan, South Africa, defending champions Venezuela, Japan, Colombia and Germany were in group A, while Australia, Cuba, South Korea, Mexico, the Netherlands and Puerto Rico were in group B.

Taiwan’s best finish at the tournament was in 2018, when it finished fifth place.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel