WBC / Taiwan's WBC hopes rise after extra-inning win over S. Korea (update)

Taipei, March 8 (CNA) Taiwan is maintaining high hopes that its national men's baseball team will advance to the World Baseball Classic (WBC) quarterfinals after clinching a key 5-4 victory over South Korea in a nail-biting extra-inning game at the Tokyo Dome on Sunday.

Boosted by three home runs -- two solo shots by Yu Chang (張育成) and Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) and a two-run homer by Stuart Fairchild -- the triumph gave Team Taiwan, competing under the name Chinese Taipei, a much-needed second victory in the five-team Group C, where only the top two finishers will advance to the knockout stage in Miami, Florida.

Entering extra innings with the game tied at four apiece, Taiwan managed to score a run in the top of the 10th inning to take a 5-4 lead. Closer Tseng Jyun-yue (曾峻岳) then took the mound and sealed the victory with three quick outs.

The win marks the first time Taiwan's national squad beat its South Korean counterpart in the WBC after losing four previous matchups.

In a post-game interview, Manager Tseng Hao-jiu (曾豪駒) attributed the victory to the all-out efforts made by each and every player.

"I think everyone did their job well. [They] focused on every pitch and did not leave anything on the field."

"Because we all know that in this game, if you make a slight mistake, victory will be snatched away by the opposing team. I am very grateful to all the players for focusing on winning this one," Tseng told a Taiwanese sports reporter following the game.

Before Sunday's match, Taiwan -- whose sole win in the group came from crushing the Czech Republic 14-0 in a mercy-rule victory on Saturday -- needed to beat South Korea on Sunday while hoping Japan would defeat Australia later that day, with South Korea then going on to beat Australia on Monday.

Only under this scenario -- in which Taiwan, South Korea, and Australia would all finish with 2-2 records in Group C -- could Taipei hope that the WBC tiebreaker rules would work in its favor.

Though clinching Sunday's win does not guarantee Taiwan will eventually advance to the Miami games, Tseng told the reporter that the team has done its best and is now waiting to see how things turn out.

Three homers plus Gu Lin's four scoreless innings

In Sunday's back-and-forth match, Taipei managed to gain an early 1-0 lead with Yu Chang's (張育成) solo home run to left field in the top of the second inning.

Defensively, Taiwan's ace starter Gu Lin Ruei-yang (古林睿煬), who currently plays for the Nippon Ham Fighters in Japan, cruised through four scoreless innings before being replaced in the top of the fifth with runners on first and third and no outs.

Reliever Lin Wei-en (林維恩) then took the mound and managed to minimize the damage by forcing a ground ball double play, though South Korea was able to tie the game 1-1 in the process.

Taiwan's Cheng Tsung-che (鄭宗哲) broke the 1-1 tie with another solo home run in the top of the sixth inning to briefly give Taiwan the lead. Soon after, however, South Korea's Kim Do-yeong hit a two-run blast to take back a 3-2 lead for his team at the bottom of the sixth.

Like two boxers trading punches back and forth, Taiwan's Stuart Fairchild's two-run home run in the top of the eighth rekindled Taiwan's hopes of clinching victory, before Kim again hit a game-tying RBI double to tie the game up again at 4-4.

Entering the extra 10th inning, team captain Chen Chieh-hsien (陳傑憲), who has been sidelined over the past two games after being hit by a pitch on his left hand in Thursday's opening match against Australia, managed to score the winning run from second base on two consecutive bunts, including an RBI-single bunt by Chiang Ku-yu (江坤宇).

Commenting on his performance as starting pitcher, Gu Lin said in a post-game interview that he always believed he was as good as the opposing Team Korea, and that he did his best to use as few pitches as possible against Korean batters by attacking the strike zone.

He also said Sunday's victory was an unforgettable touching moment for himself and the whole squad.

Fairchild, who hit home runs in two consecutive games, meanwhile, told a reporter that he was looking for something "up in the zone" and was lucky to see a slider and hit it hard in the eighth inning.

Asked to comment on the long-running baseball rivalry between Taiwan and South Korea, Fairchild, who was playing for Chinese Taipei for the first time, said it was clear from the beginning that "there was passion on both sides with the fans."

"I mean, the fans came out, supported us, and gave us the energy we needed to push through."