Beating Cuba at the World Port baseball tournament was small potatoes for Chinese Taipei compared to they accomplished Friday night at the World Baseball Challenge.
They knocked off the Cuba's A-team 9-6 in 10 innings to advance to the WBC final Sunday afternoon.
In a classic playoff matchup witnessed by a crowd of about 1,500, the top two teams in this week's round-robin tournament met on the field at Citizen Field, Chinese Taipei took advantage of the international tiebreaking rule to score three runs in the 10th and hand Cuba its first loss in six WBC games.
Kwan Wei Yang's line drive double off the left field wall scored two runs and Chinese Taipei added one more off a bases-loaded walk to go ahead, then leaned on the pitching of Chen Hua Lin to shut down the Cuban bats in their half of the 10th.
"I was really happy to get that hit, because I haven't been hitting well," said Yang, speaking through an interpreter. "This means more to us than any win over Cuba in Holland because this is their A team and it's big difference from their B team. We are really happy we can beat this team."
Under international rules, extra innings begin with each manager selecting a batter of their choice, and the previous two batters in the order are then put on base to run from first and second. To start the 10th, Chinese Taipei manager Wei Chen Chen sent Lin Han to the plate, with Tsu Wei Ho running from second and Po Ting Hsiao on first. Han advanced the runners with a bunt and the next batter, Yang, reached a full count before hammering a Jonder Martinez pitch off the left field wall to score Ho and Hsiao.
"The first batter [Hsiao] and the ninth batter {Ho] run fast and the second batter [Han] is not a good baserunner, but he can hit," said Chen, when asked to explain his player choices in the 10th, which marked the first time a WBC game in Prince George has gone to extra innings.
Chih Pei Huang picked up his fourth hit of the game, a liner off the turf that shortstop Alexander Ayala bobbled, and Yang moved up to second. With two out, Yi Kin Huang walked to load the bases for Wei Ting Lin, who worked a 3-2 count and walked on a high pitch to make it 9-6.
That was the cue for Cuba manager Eduardo Martin to pull the plug on Martinez and bring in Danny Betancourt, who got Tsu Wei Ho to fly out to end the inning.
In the bottom of the 10th, Cuba plated Hector Olivera, with Yoelvis Leyva on first and Yorbis Borroto on second. Olivera flied out for the first out and Frederick Cepeda ground out to second base. The game ended with Lin striking out Alfredo Despaigne.
Chinese Taipei beat Cuba's B team three times while winning the World Port tournament in Rotterdam, Holland the week before they came to Prince George. Now they get a day to rest up for the final, while Cuba is forced to play a semifinal game tonight at 7 p.m. against the winner of today's Canada-Japan playoff, which starts at 11 a.m.
"During the last four weeks we've had a lot of ball games, so It's important for us to have a day to relax, to prepare for the final game," said Yang. "
Cuba had reason to smile early. They jumped on starter Yu Hsun Chen to grab a 3-0 lead in the first inning. With two out, Jose Dariel Abreu singled in Cepeda, who got on with a walk, and that advanced Despaigne to second base. Chen then walked Youlieski Gourriel to load the bases for Rudy Reyes, who came through with a double off the centrefield wall to score two more runs.
Chinese Taipei answered with two in the second inning and tied it at 3 in the top of the third. Yi Kin Huang led off the second with a home run and Wei Ting Lin got on with a single and stole second, then scored from third when a pitch from Cuban starter Miguel Gonzalez got away from catcher Ariel Pestano. Then in the third, Tsung Han Yu brought in the third run with a hit to right field to score Han, who reached base on an error to shortstop Alexander Ayala. That ended the night for Gonzalez, who handed the ball to Alberto Soto.
Ayala picked up his second error of the game in the fourth inning when he got fooled on a short hopper off the bat of Hsiao. Han ran in from third base to put Chinese Taipei ahead 4-3.
Despaigne, a solid candidate for the tournament MVP award, wiped out that lead with one swing of the bat in the fifth inning, a three-run shot with lead-off hitter Leyva and Olivera already aboard.
But in the seventh, Lin delivered a clutch hit into short centrefield with bases juiced to score Yang and Huang to tie it 6-6.
In the other game today at 3 p.m., the Bahamas will take on the Beijing Tigers to determine fifth place.
