Home International baseball Preliminary Round Completed

Preliminary Round Completed

by Matt Smith

We already knew which four teams would be heading into the semi-finals, but the final day of the Olympics Baseball tournament preliminary round provided plenty of action.  There were two games decided by the new ‘extra innings’ rule, including a pitching classic between Japan and the U.S., while the top two teams Cuba and Korea showed their dominance over the rest of the field with convincing victories.   

Cuba responded to losing their unbeaten record yesterday by pummelling China 17-1.  They jumped all over the home nation in the second inning, putting together two home runs, two triples, one double, four singles and a walk, while China added in a fielding error for good measure.  All told, Cuba amassed nine hits and nine runs during the inning and they kept going over the next four, eventually racking up twenty hits in total.  China did at least end their tournament on a slightly positive note by breaking up the shutout with a single run in the top of the seventh; however, they needed another seven runs to avoid the ‘mercy killing’ and one run was all they could manage.

It was almost as comfortable for Korea.  A Daeho Lee two-run homer in the first inning set them on their way to a 10-0 victory over the Netherlands in eight innings.  The Dutch were shutout once again, compiling just four hits and failing to get a single runner in scoring position throughout the game.  Wonsam Jang pitched all eight innings for Korea, giving the rest of their pitching staff an extra day of rest in the build up to the final two days of the competition.

Cuba and Korea’s victories may have been straightforward, but the same can’t be said for Chinese Taipei and the United States.  The former defeated Canada in a twelve inning 6-5 win.  Chinese Taipei let a 5-2 lead slip and the game was tied at 5-5 at the end of nine frames, but they took advantage of the ‘extra innings’ rule in the top of the twelfth.  Chih-Hsien Chiang singled home a run to begin the inning and although they were unable to add any more, one run proved to be enough.  Fu-Te Ni struck out the first two Canadian batters in the bottom of the inning before Chih-Chia Chang came in and struck out Chris Robinson to end the game.

The final game saw Japan and the U.S. meet in what could potentially be a preview of the final.  If so, it will be a fantastic contest.  The two pitching staffs dominated the batting lineups.  Every time Japan left the field after holding America scoreless in the top of the inning, the U.S. turned around and did the same to them.  The run of zeroes on the scoreboard could only be broken by the ‘extra innings’ rule (a strong argument in favour of the rule for TV execs and tournament organizers; a strong argument against it for baseball purists).  The U.S. had the first chance to break the deadlock and they did so by plating four runs on three hits.  Casey Weathers (a first round draft pick by the Rockies last year) struck out the first two Japanese batters in the bottom of the inning and it looked like the U.S would ease their way to the win.  Japan had other ideas though.  They scored two runs and then had the bases loaded, only for Weathers to get Shinnosuke Abe to hit a pop-up to first baseman Terry Tiffee to kill the rally and end the game with a final score of 4-2 to the Americans.

At the end of the preliminary round, the standings look like this:

1) Korea (7-0)
2) Cuba (6-1)
3) United States (5-2)
4) Japan (4-3)
———————–
5) Chinese Taipei (2-5)
6) Canada (2-5)
7) Netherlands (1-6)
8 ) China (1-6)

Thursday as in off-day.  In the semi-finals on Friday, it’s Korea versus Japan and Cuba versus the United States.

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1 comment

Joe Gray August 20, 2008 - 10:47 pm

It was a good job they brought in the new rule after all, otherwise they might still be in the middle of preliminary round, with the number of games going past 10 innings.

Both semi-finals are mouth-watering contests.

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