BASEBALL/Taiwan defeats Korea 7-3 in World Baseball Classic warmup

Taipei, Feb. 14 (CNA) Taiwan's national baseball team continued its good form heading into the World Baseball Classic (WBC) qualifiers with a 7-3 win over the Korean Baseball Organization's Lotte Giants at the Taipei Dome Thursday.

Following their loss to Taiwan 4-3 the day before, the Giants cranked up the heat on Thursday to score two runs in the bottom of the first from Taiwan's starter Li Dong-ming (李東洺) after batter Son Ho-young's homer sent him and Hwang Seong-bin home to open the game 0-2.

A grand slam from Lin Chia-wei (林佳緯) then gave Taiwan a 6-2 lead in the top of the eighth and the home team held firm through the final innings to secure the win.

Thursday's victory was Taiwan's second in the warmup series following a 4-3 win against the visiting Giants on Wednesday.

In the previous day's game, Lu Yung-chen (呂詠臻) took to the mound as Team Taiwan's starter in the top of the first to put on a 1-2-3 inning on all three of the Giants' initial hitters.

But Lu was pulled from the mound in the top of the second and relieved by Huang Chun (黃群) after allowing Korea to score its first run on a hit from Jeong Bo-keun.

Taiwan's first run was then scored in the bottom of the second after an extra-base hit from Wu Nien-ting (吳念庭) sent Chen Tzu-hao (陳子豪) all the way home to tie.

Following the conclusion of the two-game series, Taiwan's manager Tseng Hao-jiu (曾豪駒) thanked the Lotte Giants for "being willing to participate in a warm-up game so that we could experience a certain amount of pressure before the qualifiers."

"After all, our players will face pitchers and hitters they've never faced before in international matches; [so] we need to adjust and strategize quickly," Tseng said.

Tseng had previously said that Taiwan's roster for the WBC qualifiers would be different from that of the Premier12, with Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲) and catcher Lin Chia-cheng (林家正), the only two set to play in both tournaments.

Taiwan is set to face off against Spain at Taipei Dome on Feb. 21 in its first qualifier game, followed by games against South Africa and Nicaragua the following two days.