Naha: Taiwan has advanced to the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup super round in Japan, after winning a dramatic extra-inning tiebreaker over Germany on Tuesday. Taiwan’s Pasula Takislinian scored in the top of the first in Tuesday’s game at Nishizaki Stadium in Itoman City, Okinawa, but Germany quickly answered with two runs in the bottom half of the inning.
According to Focus Taiwan, despite Taiwan’s efforts to even the score, Germany held the lead until Hsu Shu-cheng scored a run and tied the game 4-4 in the sixth inning, thanks to teammate Li Kai-qi’s single to center field. Both sides failed to score in the seventh inning, and the game went into a tiebreaker, in accordance with the World Baseball Softball Federation’s (WBSC) rules for 18-and-under events.
In the top of the eighth, Hsu bunted the ball, and German pitcher Finn Niemeyer’s error allowed Taiwan’s runners on first and second base – Jiang Ting-yi and Chang Yi-an – to score. Hsu, who made it to third base on the error, scored on Zeng Sheng-en’s single through the left side. Zeng then scored after a bunt by Takislinian resulted in an error by Niemeyer’s replacement, Pepe Stockhaus.
Meanwhile, Taiwanese pitcher Lin Chun-hsi allowed no runs after being called up at the bottom of the seventh inning and ended the game. Taiwan’s 8-4 win over Germany gave the team a better standing in the super round amid its only opening-round defeat to the United States, which concluded the round-robin group stage undefeated after crushing Australia 11-1 Tuesday.
As a result, Panama became the third country in Group B to advance in what was a three-way tie with Australia and Germany, according to the WBSC. On Wednesday, South Korea and South Africa in Group A resumed their game previously suspended by the weather, with South Korea scoring four more runs to win the game 17-0 at Okinawa Cellular Stadium in Naha, Okinawa.
South Korea, ranked world No. 4, is qualified for the super round along with world No. 1 Japan and No. 7 Puerto Rico. Taiwan, the world No. 2, will first meet South Korea on Thursday, Puerto Rico on Friday, and then Japan on Saturday.
The six teams in the super round will play for spots in either the championship title game or the bronze medal game on Sunday, while the results of the tournament will affect the 12 countries’ ranking in the men’s 18-and-under baseball division. Japan is the defending champion, having beat the host nation Taiwan to win the 2023 U-18 tournament. Taiwan won the title in 2019 but failed to defend it after losing to the U.S., when the nine-time champion hosted the COVID-19-delayed 2021 tournament in Florida in 2022.
