Taipei, March 12 (CNA) Yang Chien-fu shut out Australia as Taiwan baseball national team won its most crucial game in the 2008 Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament Wednesday in the southern city of Douliou and got one foot in the door for the Beijing Olympics.
The 5-0 victory almost sealed the deal for Taiwan, which was tied with Canada at 4-1 and trailed only South Korea. Another win over lowly South Africa Thursday will guarantee Taiwan a top three finish in the tourney and a ticket to Beijing.
Earlier in the day, South Korea clinched an Olympic seed by routing Germany 12-1 to go 5-0.
“I’m glad we got things done. There has been tremendous pressure from fans [to make the Olympics] but these young players have been working very hard. Hopefully, we can visit Beijing in August,”Taiwan manager Hung Yi-chung said after the game.
Taiwanese starter Yang Chien-fu had six strikeouts and allowed only four hits in nine strong innings, confusing the Australians with his sinkers and sliders from start to finish en route to his second win in the tournament.
After a heartbreaking 6-5 loss in extra innings to Canada Monday, the Wednesday match became a must-win game for Taiwan. And Yang did not disappoint, carrying the whole team and nation on his shoulder again after his first win, a 6-1 decisoin over Mexico.
“I tried to stay calm and face the hitters with primarily sinkers and curveballs in the first seven innings and switched to sliders in the last two innings. This is an exciting win for us but, for me, it’s just another win,”Yang told the media after the game.
Taiwan’s scoring run in the bottom of second turned out to be the only offensive highlight of the game but that was enough. The home boys had five hits, including two doubles from Chang Chien-ming and Lin Che-hsuan, respectively, off Australian starter Paul Mildren to jump on a 4-0 lead.
Taiwan failed to produce a hit from the second to the sixth inning before Peng Cheng-min’s single ended the drought in the bottom of seventh. Peng stole second and advanced to the third base on a wild throw. Peng scored Taiwan’s insurance run on another wild pitch to make it 5-0.
Australia, the silver medalist in the 2004 Athens Olympics, could never get its offense going for the entire game. Every time it placed runners on base, the momentum was stopped by Taiwan’s brilliant defense.
Taiwan, which outhit Australia 7-4 in the game, will meet South Korea in the tournament finale Friday.
Under the tiebreaking rule, placing of teams with identical won-loss record will be determined by the orders of comparisons of runs allowed average, earned run allowed average, hitting percentage, on-base percentage and slugging percentage.
In other Wednesday games, Canada beat Spain 11-0 and Mexico defeated South Africa 5-0.
-- Standings:
South Korea 5-0
Taiwan 4-1
Canada 4-1
Australia 2-3
Germany 2-3
Mexico 2-3
Spain 1-4
South Africa 0-5