BASEBALL/Taiwan wins Premier12 opener over South Korea with homeruns

Taipei, Nov. 13 (CNA) Two homeruns, including one grand slam by outfielder Chen Chen-wei (陳晨威), ensured victory for Taiwan's national baseball team over South Korea 6-3 at the Taipei Dome Wednesday on the opening day of WBSC Premier12 championship Group B play.

In addition to Chen's grand slam, center fielder Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) also nailed a two-run homer, both in the bottom of the second inning, giving the hosts an early 6-nothing lead.

Taiwan, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, did not score a run after taking the early lead but the six runs were more than enough for the home squad to hold on and take an opening victory.

Team Taiwan had eight hits in total. In contrast, Team South Korea had only three hits in a game dominated by Taiwan's ace starter Lin Yu-min (林昱珉), a prospect from Arizona Diamondbacks who reached AAA in 2024, and five Taiwanese relivers.

Kim Do-yeong's RBI double and Park Dong-won's RBI single at the top of the fourth inning cut the gap to 6-2. At the top of the seventh, Na Seung-yeup homered to deep right field, further closing the gap to 6-3, but that was as close as South Korea got.

At the post-game presser, Team Taiwan manager Tseng Hao-ju (曾豪駒) gave credit to all his players for showing great confidence during the game and ultimately winning the opener despite being the underdogs against South Korea.

South Korea won the gold medal at the inaugural WBSC Premier12 in 2015 before winning the silver in 2019. The best finish for Taiwan in Premier12 was fifth in 2019.

Tseng also thanked a nearly sellout 40,000 crowd at the Taipei Dome for supporting the national team.

Chen Chen-wei said at the press event that he set his mind on aiming for a breaking ball from South Korean starter Ko Young-pyo and was lucky enough to make the grand slam.

Meanwhile, South Korean manager Ryu Joong-il praised Taiwan's explosive batting lineup at the press event.

In other Group B action Wednesday, defending champions Japan crushed Australia 9-3 in Nagoya, Japan and the Dominican Republic defeated Cuba 6-1 at Taipei's Tianmu Stadium.

Group A consists of Mexico, the Netherlands, Panama, Puerto Rico, the United States and Venezuela.

Taiwan will face the Dominican Republic on Thursday at the Taipei Dome.

The 2024 WBSC Premier12 is the 3rd edition of the baseball championship featuring the 12 highest-ranked national teams in the world. It is organized by the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC), the world governing body for the two sports.

The top two teams from group A and B advance to the Super Round to be held in Japan.

The teams that finish first and second in the Super Round will play the gold medal match, while the teams placed third and fourth play for bronze.