Taiwan shuts out RI at baseball tourney

Taiwan shuts out RI at baseball tourney

TAIPEI (Agencies): Host Chinese Taipei blanked Indonesia 16-0 to record its third straight victory in the fourth day preliminary rounds of the 21st Asian Baseball Championship in suburban Taipei.

Chinese Taipei pitcher Chuang Ming-liang had a good performance, completely blocking out the Indonesian batting power during the seven innings of play.

During the seven inning, Chuang gave the Indonesian team three safe hits with nine striking out without a loss.

Chinese Taipei scored a total of 15 safe hits including home runs by Wang Shih-hua, Kao Kuo-ching and Chen Yuna-chia, putting Wang and Chen at the top of the home run list.

Meanwhile, South Korea beat the Philippines 17-2, its first victory of the tournament that opened Monday.

The Philippine pitcher failed to stop the powerful attack launched by South Korea, while Korean pitcher Chung Sung-ki completely blocked the Philippine attack.

South Korea scored nine points in the first half of the first inning and scored another point in almost every following inning.

If South Korea beats Indonesia Friday, it will certainly advance to the third place with two wins and two losses, while the Philippines will rank fourth with one win and three losses.

Meanwhile, Chinese Taipei will take on Japan in the last day of the preliminary competition.

In New York, baseball's new breed of sluggers will have to contend with closer enforcement of the good old-fashioned strike zone this season in a campaign that gets underway with an April 1 Opening Day in Puerto Rico.

Texas and Toronto launch the long season at San Juan's Hiram Bithorn Stadium where fans will cheer native sons Ivan Rodriguez, the Rangers' perennial All-Star catcher, and power-hitting first baseman Carlos Delgado of the Blue Jays.

Throw in shortstop extraordinary Alex Rodriguez, the new quarter-billion-dollar man of the power-rich Rangers, and the game promises an immediate test of measures that baseball hopes will swing the pendulum back in the direction of the pitcher.

Last season an average of 10.28 runs were scored each game -- the most since 1936.

Throwing to a strike zone often called from the narrow range of the belt to the knees and wary about making a fat pitch, pitchers issued an average of 7.51 walks a game -- the most since 1950.