Taipei, Oct. 31 (CNA) Taiwan suffered its second heartbreaking loss in two days Sunday, a 4-3 defeat to Italy, to finish fourth in the 2010 Intercontinental Cup baseball tournament in Taichung
The game was not decided until Taiwan's final at-bat, when, trailing by a run, it loaded the bases with two outs. But Kao Kuo-ching could not bring the tying run home, being thrown out at first after hitting a weak grounder to the pitcher.
On Saturday, Taiwan missed out on playing in the tournament's title game when it lost to the Netherlands 5-3 on a two-run walk-off home run.
Italy, whose third place finish was its best showing ever at the Intercontinental Cup, set the tone early when it took advantage of two errors by the home team and stole a base to jump to a 2-0 lead.
Taiwan added a run in both the first and second inning to tie the game, but Italy answered with timely hits and took a 4-2 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning.
Taiwan cut the deficit to 4-3 in the bottom of the inning, setting up the tense finish.
Taiwan manager Yeh Chih-hsien apologized to Taiwan's baseball fans in a televised post-game interview, saying the team "had let the fans down and didn't get the job done."
He also said Taiwan's 12-6 advantage in the hit column was misleading.
"Our lineup failed to put together consecutive hits. Seven of our 12 hits came from only two batters, the second and fourth batters in our lineup," Yeh lamented.
Taiwan failed to duplicate its third place finish in the previous Intercontinental Cup, when the tournament was also held in Taiwan in 2006.
In other games, Japan beat South Korea 2-1 at Douliou Baseball Stadium in the central city of Douliou, Yunlin County, on Sunday to finish fifth in the 10-team tournament.
Nicaragua, the Czech Republic, Thailand and Hong Kong finished the tournament in the seventh to 10th spots.
Cuba and the Netherlands were playing for the Intercontinental Cup title Sunday night. (By Chris Wang) enditem/ls