Taipei, Dec. 1 (CNA) South Korea scored all but one of its runs on homeruns and beat home team Taiwan 5-2 at Taichung's Intercontinental Stadium on the opening day of the 24th Asian Baseball Championship Saturday.
Taiwan will meet the Philippines Sunday before playing Japan Monday in a round robin series of matches.
Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and the Philippines are in Level A of the biennial tournament, which will determine Asia's sole automatic qualifier for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, while the second and third-placed teams will advance to the final Olympic qualifier, to be played next spring.
Lee Jong Wook's three-run homer off Taiwanese starting pitcher Lin En-yu in the fifth innings changed the momentum of the game as South Korea took the lead 3-1. Park Jin Man added a solo homerun in the seventh to make the score 4-2.
The home team outhit the Koreans 8-5 in the game but the advantage was neutralized by three defensive errors. Lin En-yu had 10 strikeouts and gave up four hits in five innings.
Chang Chien-ming and Chang Tai-shan had consecutive hits as Taiwan cut the deficit to 3-2 in the bottom of the sixth. But South Korea added an insurance run in the eighth on Taiwan's two errors and made the final score 5-2.
Japan won the last two titles of the tournament in 2003 and 2005, while Taiwan has finished runner-up both times.