Win and you're in. The U.S. knew it was faced with this heading into Tuesday night's game against Chinese Taipei. Despite shaky hitting from the top-half of its order, Team USA did indeed hold on for a narrow 4-2 victory, qualifying it for the medal rounds.
After four scoreless innings, Chinese Taipei broke the tie when Chih-Sheng Lin led off with a double to left. After a sacrifice bunt by Feng-Min Chen moved Lin to third, Chih-Wei Shih hit a scorching ground ball to first that was misplayed by Matt Brown. The error scored Lin, and gave Taipei the early lead.
The U.S. came right back in the bottom of the fifth. Dexter Fowler led off with a triple to the foot of the wall in right-center and Brian Barden followed with a double that landed in the almost exact same spot. The hit scored Fowler and drew the score even, 1-1.
In the sixth, Team USA struck again, this time behind a leadoff solo shot from John Gall that just cleared the left field fence. Lou Marson followed with a walk, and he was sacrificed to second by Jason Donald. Fowler was up next, and his double to the leftfield corner plated Marson for the squad's third run.
The back and forth continued in the top of the seventh when Lin strode to the plate and sent a towering solo blast to left. It was the lone run in the inning for Chinese Taipei, keeping them one back heading into theeighth.
Gall was back at it again in the eighth for the U.S., when he led off with a stand-up double to right-center. Two batters later Donald stroked a single to right to score Gall and provide Team USA with an insurance run.
Taipei had no answer in the top of the ninth, going down in order to U.S. closer Kevin Jepsen. The save was his first of the tournament.
U.S. starter Brandon Knight (1-0) earned his first win of the tournament, only allowing two earned runs and striking out five in six and third innings of work. Wen-Hsiung Hsu (0-1) suffered the loss for Taipei, giving up three earned on seven hits in five innings of work.
With the win, Team USA moves to 4-2 and qualifies for the Olympic baseball tournament's medal rounds. Taipei continued its tailspin, dropping to a disappointing 1-5. The U.S. faces Japan at 19:00 on the Wukesong Baseball Main Field on Wednesday, and Chinese Taipei takes on Canada at 18:00 on Field 2.
Notes: Jotaro Ueji, Managing Director of the Mizuno Corporation threw out the ceremonial first pitch...attendance for Monday's game was announced at 7,662.
For more information, please visit www.ibaf.org. Photo credit: Michael Zarrilli - IBAF
Source: IBAF
