Premier12 | Chinese Taipei power past Australia to punch ticket to Super Round
It was long. It was loud. It was laborious.
Powered by a deeply boisterous home crowd, Chinese Taipei completely overwhelmed Australia in an 11-3 Premier12 win that ended Australia’s chances of advancing to the Super Round.
Chinese Taipei fans were on their feet, singing fight songs to a marching band from the first pitch, in a tilt that lasted over four hours.
They left happy. Chinese Taipei are going to the Super Round.
Chinese Taipei outmuscled Australia, tallying 26 baserunners from 16 hits, eight walks and two errors.
They were conducted by the artful bat of Li Lin.
The Rakuten Monkeys All-Star, who hit .358 in the CPBL this season, was a problem for Australia. He 4-for-5 with five RBI and a killer three-run homer that put the game to bed.
“Chinese Taipei were outstanding tonight. The energy in the Dome was something we haven’t experienced before. They were relentless,” said Team Australia hitting coach Chris Adamson after the game. “Chinese Taipei were tremendous so hats off to them.”
The hosts were simply relentless. I’m not even talking about the players, although they were on too.
By the seventh inning, they had 20 base runners.
Australia used nine pitchers in the loss.
The bright spot? Solomon Maguire hit a homer off his first swing on the senior national team.
On to the game…
There was one glaring difference between the two teams: production with two outs on the board. Australia just couldn’t seem to deliver the knock-out punch to get out of an inning, nor find one when opportunities came knocking, especially early.
In the first inning, Chieh-Kai Pan capped off a complete two-out rally vs Mitch Neunborn with an RBI single.
In the second inning, Li Lin singled off Jon Kennedy to extend the advantage to 2-0.
In the fourth inning, Song-En Tseng doubled home a pair of runs off Lewis Thorpe to push a lead to 4-1.
In the fifth inning, Li Lin struck again, this time off Dan McGrath. His RBI-single capped off three consecutive Chinese Taipei hits with two outs.
All with two outs. You get the idea.
Australia wasn’t without their sprinkle of magic.
The headline had to be Solomon Maguire. The 21-year-old hit a home run with his first swing in a senior Team Australia uniform.
“It was amazing to be around. Someone that is so young and early in his baseball journey, to see him grab the opportunity and make most of it was great. Everyone was super happy for him,” said Adamson in the post-game presser.
Although, young Maguire is accustomed to the Green & Gold, becoming the first player in history to play in an U12, U15, U18, U23 and a senior World Cup.
His third-inning deep fly brought the lead to 2-1.
Australia had other chances, especially early.
Travis Bazzana opened the game with a single, but the inning ended with a strike-em-out-throw-em-out. Rixon Wingrove and Tim Kennelly started the second with a single each, but Darryl George, Alex Hall & Robbie Perkins all struck out.
Wingrove and Kennelly ended the game with two hits each.
On the pitching side, Australia used the “everybody” approach again. Australia used six pitchers in the first five innings: Mitch Neunborn (1.2), Jon Kennedy (1.0), Coen Wynne (0.1), Lewis Thorpe (0.2), Sam Holland (1.0).
Coen Wynne (below) & Jon Kennedy also provided a crazy moment. In the third, Chinese Taipei worked two runners on base (second and third) with no outs. Kennedy worked a pop-out and strikeout, before Wynne delivered the inning-ending push out.
By the end of the fifth inning, Chinese Taipei had peppered Australian pitching for nine hits, six walks and an error. Australia did well to contain the hosts to just five runs off their 16 base runners.
Todd Van Steensel appeared to settle things down in the sixth. He needed just seven pitches to work Australia’s first and only 1-2-3 inning of the game.
He retired the first out of the seventh before allowing a single. That was the end of his day for Todd.
Blake Townsend entered. After an error helped put another baserunner aboard, Li Lin stepped up to the plate. He catapulted a three-run homer to centrefield that put a dagger in Australia’s tournament.
Robbie Perkins hit a homer in the seventh but Australia was too far behind.
Will Sherriff tossed a perfect eighth inning. But Chinese Taipei launched another three run bomb to put an exclamation mark on a historic evening. They’re going to the Super Round.
Australia added an RBI off the bat of Alex Hall to round out the scoring.
Australia falls to 1-3. They can not advance to the Super Round. They will play for bragging rights vs Korea tomorrow at 12:00PM local time, 3:00PM AEDT.
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