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Chinese Taipei defeats Curacao 9-1 at Volunteer Stadium

By ZACH POWELL 3 min read

A capsule look at Chinese Taipei's 9-1 win against Curacao on Wednesday afternoon at Volunteer Stadium:

PLAY OF THE GAME -- While Caribbean's Jay-Dlynn Wiel's homer was nice, it didn't give Curacao much leverage, only tying the game. In the top of the fourth inning, Chinese Taipei began getting its bats going. After a single from Wu Yan-Kai, Wu Yun-Hsi walked and Chen Kai-Sheng hit an RBI single while Fan Chen-Jun and Wu Chen-Yang walked. This set up a two-run inning and advantage.

CHINESE TAIPEI PLAYER OF THE GAME -- Hsu Shao-Chieh: While Chinese Taipei garnered nine runs on six hits, that wasn't the biggest moment of the game as the hits were scattered up until the top of the fifth. In the bottom of the fourth, relieve pitcher Hsu Shao-Chieh tossed two consecutive strikeouts and a groundout got Asia-Pacific out the inning, shutting down any momentum Caribbean tried to build.

CURACAO PLAYER OF THE GAME -- Jay-Dlynn Wiel: Although his homer was his only hit of the game in the opening inning, it proved to be big at that point. Curacao had no other big moments throughout the game except for that one and it gave Curacao a slight edge.

BIG INNING-- Chinese Taipei's fifth: In the top of the fifth, Chinese Taipei began to open the game up. Following a walk and an eventual run from Lai Yu-Jun, the Asia-Pacific Regional champions got four consecutive runs on two hits in that sequence.

Lin You-An hit an RBI single, Lin Wei-Hong hit a single and scored and three consecutive walks pulled in runs to make the score 7-1.

One more walk with the bases loaded and an RBI single by leadoff hitter Wu Yun-Hsi gave Chinese a 9-1 lead. Curacao finally got out the inning after giving up six runs on three hits and two pitchers but the damage had already been done.

BEST EFFORT--Curacao did all they could to try and hold Chinese Taipei from gaining a huge lead, but walk after walk garnered run after run and all of a sudden the game got out of hand.

Give credit to the Caribbean Regional champion's pitching effort. Through five pitchers, two whom pitched one-third of an inning or less, Helmir Helmiir and Joshua Acosta Fernandez pitched some of the best ball Caribbean saw all game. They didn't give up a single run, had zero errors and only garnered one walk.

FLASHING LEATHER--Talk about making a youth statement.

Hsu Shao-Chieh not only tossed two consecutive strikeouts in the bottom of the fourth inning, then leading to a groundout for the third, he gave a stare down to those two batters as they made their way back to the dugout. He showed that Chinese Taipei means all business for the remainder of the Series. Shao-Chieh threw four total strikeouts in the victory.

HOME RUNS--Curacao's Jay-Dylnn Wiel went yard to left-center field on Asia-Pacific's ninth pitch of the game to tie the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the first inning.

WHAT IT MEANS--Chinese Taipei moves on to the International Championship game set for Saturday at 5pm. For Curacao, the team will battle the loser between Japan and Mexico. The winner between the Caribbean team and Japan/Mexico will face Chinese Taipei in the championship game on Saturday at 5pm at Lamade Stadium.

Starting at /week.