The Taiwan men’s national baseball team lost to Venezuela 2-5 to finish sixth in the super round of the U-23 Baseball World Cup on Friday, thereby failing to advance to the medal game of the biennial tournament in Mexico.
Taiwanese starter Lin Yu-min (???) pitched four respectable innings, allowing five hits and three runs, while striking out nine batters, before he was relieved by Hsu Chi-ling (???) in the bottom of the fifth.
Hsu pitched one solid inning, allowing no hits and keeping his team only one run behind.
However, reliever Chiu Chun-wei (???) got off to a rocky start and allowed Venezuela to score two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning, with Antonio Pinero’s RBI single capping his team’s scoring for the day.
The Taiwanese batters, meanwhile, managed to score only one run each in the third and fourth innings.
With Friday’s loss, Taiwan ended its World Cup run, finishing with four wins in eight games in this year’s tournament.
After the match, Lin told reporters that he was satisfied with his overall performance, although he had not been able to throw his pitches as fast as he would have liked.
The 18-year-old left-hander said the World Cup event in Mexico, his first international tournament, was a learning experience.
His personal goal during the tournament was to avoid any major mistakes that would cause huge losses for the Taiwan team, he said.
The head coach of the national U-23 team, Wu Ssu-hsien (???), said he was satisfied with the performance of his players and thought they had learned a lot during the games in Mexico.
The tournament was a good opportunity for the players to get a sense of the standard of play at that level and also to aim for a goal, Wu said.
Following Taiwan’s defeat Friday, the team was sixth in the super round, behind Venezuela, Mexico, Columbia, Cuba and Panama.
The U-23 Baseball World Cup is a biennial world championship, featuring players aged 21-23, but the age limit was raised to 24 this year, as the tournament was not played in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The medal game will be held Sunday, with Mexico and Venezuela vying for gold, while Columbia and Cuba will compete for bronze.
Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel