Chinese Taipei, Japan advance at Asian Baseball Championship

Chinese Taipei, Japan advance at Asian Baseball Championship

TAIPEI (Agencies): Both Chinese Taipei and Japan advanced Tuesday, the second day of the 21st Asian Baseball Championship in Taipei, defeating the Philippines and Indonesia, respectively.

Japan thrashed Indonesia 17-0 and ended the game in the sixth innings. Indonesia was competing in the tournament for the first time.

Japanese pitcher Toshiya Sugiuchi, who pitched at the Sydney Olympic Games, earned the win by striking out eight Indonesian hitters, while two other Japanese pitchers struck out seven other Indonesians.

Meanwhile, Chinese Taipei demonstrated superior power by defeating the Philippines 16-2. This was second defeat recorded by the Philippine squad in two days of competition.

Philippine pitcher Ernesto Binaro completely blocked out theattack of the host Chinese Taipei team in the first three inningsputting the team into the lead and surprising the Taiwan team.

Pitcher Tseng Chao-yang substituted for Chuang Hong-liang and stopped the Philippine attack at the beginning of the third inning and Chinese Taipei scored its first point in the bottom of the third.

Chen Yuan-chia of Chinese Taipei hit the first home run of the tournament in the bottom of the fourth and scored a total of eight points.

Chinese Taipei scored another five points in the bottom of the fifth and Wang Shih-hua hit a two-point home run in the bottom of the sixth to chalk up 16 points for the host team.

The game ended in the seventh inning.

Chinese Taipei and Japan lead the leaderboard with two wins meanwhile Indonesia sits in the bottom with one defeat.

On Wednesday, the Philippines will meet Indonesia and Korea will play Japan.