Canada is on life support after dropping its third straight game at the World Baseball Challenge.
The Canadians fell 8-2 to the Chinese Taipei National Team in front of 868 fans who braved the chilly temperatures Friday night to take in the ball game at Citizen Field. Canada is in last place in the five-team tournament with a 0-3 record, while Chinese Taipei pulled into a second-place tie at 2-1 with Japan. Cuba leads with a 2-0 record, while the USA is 1-2. The top four teams qualify for the medal round.
Hua Wei Lo earned the win for Chinese Taipei, allowing two runs on five hits with one strikeout and one walk through six innings of work. Jung Hao Hseih and Chia Yu Chien finished the game on the mound for Taipei.
Chinese Taipei had 11 hits to Canada's seven.
Canada committed one error, a big improvement from the 11 they had in its first two games.
Canada is off today and returns to action Sunday night against Cuba.
After back-to-back singles, Chia Wei Huang and Po Jung Wang gave Chinese Taipei a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning when Canadian pitcher Ryan Eisworth overthrew first base on an infield hit by Chi Hung Hsu. It was 3-0 before the inning was done on a solo home run over the left field fence by Geo Long Luo.
Canada was able to get two runs back in the top of the third inning. Jeremy Kral led off with a single and was moved to second base on a sacrifice bunt before scoring on Rob Recuenco's single. Jackson Gooch pounded a double to bring Recuenco home and cut Taipei's lead to 3-2.
Chinese Taipei added another run in the fourth inning on a double by Hsu for a 4-2 advantage and then followed up with three runs, including a two-run home run by Wang to take a 7-2 lead after five innings.
Eisworth took the loss for Canada, giving up seven runs on four hits with three strikeouts, two walks and an error in five innings of work.
There were 457 fans at Friday's afternoon game where Japan beat Team USA 8-5.
The two games today feature Japan JX-Eneos against Chinese Taipei at 3 p.m., followed by the highly-anticipated game between the USA and Cuba's Ciego de Avila Tigres at 7 p.m. Sunday is Rotary night as the two clubs in Prince George purchased tickets for all minor baseball players to attend the games for the day between Chinese Taipei and the USA (3 p.m.) and Canada vs. Cuba (7 p.m.). Minor players need to wear their team-issued hats to get into the ballpark.
