S. Korea baseball team thrashes Indonesia 15-0

JAKARTA (JP): South Korea crushed Indonesia 15-0 at the Asian Baseball Championship in Taipei on Friday, sending Indonesia to the bottom of the standings with four losses.

Indonesian lost to Japan 17-0 on Tuesday, fell to the Philippines 7-3 on Wednesday and was beaten 16-0 by host Chinese Taipei on Thursday.

With its one victory over Indonesia, the Philippines finished in fourth with South Korea in third.

South Korea will face the loser of Friday evening's game between Chinese Taipei and Japan in Saturday's semifinals. The winner of Friday's game will go directly to Sunday's final.

"Some of our hitters managed to reach third base, but the batters behind them failed to hit so we didn't score any runs," the chief delegate of the Indonesian contingent, Harry Trisnadi, told The Jakarta Post in a telephone interview from Taipei.

"Our best batters could hit some of the fastballs but the others failed to do so. We have to improve their skills so there will be no gap between our hitters."

Harry, the vice president of the Indonesian Baseball and Softball Association, also said that national hitters and pitchers were not familiar with fastballs.

"Indonesian hitters are not familiar with fastballs. Our pitchers throw between 120 and 125 kilometers per hour, which is about the same as the Filipino pitchers.

"On the other hand, pitchers from Taipei, Japan and South Korea can throw nearly 140 kilometers per hour."

Harry said Indonesia's outfielders had to work harder because the outfield here was larger than what they played on back home.

"In Taipei we played on a larger diamond than what we have back home at the Bung Karno Baseball Stadium in Senayan, which is smaller due to limited space.

"Our outfielders had to adapt quickly to the larger diamond, but they failed. There were times when they could run down the fly balls easily.

"Problems occurred when our opponent's batters hit singles that landed between our infielders and outfielders. The outfielders have to run faster (to make the catch) and prevent the runners from reaching first base."

Harry said he approached Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA) secretary-general Maeda Yokichi of Japan to inquire about training possibilities for Indonesian players.

"We need a specialized pitching coach and I asked BFA about the possibility of sending Indonesian players and coaches to train with Japanese baseball clubs for a couple of months.

"The batters can also use a faster pitching machine to get used to facing fastballs."

The Indonesian team is scheduled to arrive back home on Monday afternoon. (nvn)