Chinese Taipei hammers Czechia for 1st win, Korea up next
Chinese Taipei players celebrate their 14-0 win over Czechia in Pool C action of the World Baseball Classic at Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Saturday. Reuters-Yonhap
TOKYO — Chinese Taipei trounced Czechia 14-0 Saturday for its first victory at the World Baseball Classic (WBC).
After failing to score in its first two losses in Pool C play, Chinese Taipei put up two runs on the board in the top of the first inning at Tokyo Dome, and then tacked on four more runs in the second inning via Stuart Fairchild's grand slam en route to an easy victory.
Chinese Taipei will close out its first round against South Korea in a must-win game at noon Sunday.
South Korea began the tournament with an 11-4 win over Czechia, Thursday, and its second game will be later Saturday against Japan.
Japan, the defending champion, routed Chinese Taipei 13-0 Friday night.
With three consecutive losses, Czechia has been eliminated from knockout contention.
Chinese Taipei had managed just four hits, all singles, in the previous two games, and then got three hits in the first inning alone Saturday, including a run-scoring single by Chang Yu.
Chinese Taipei loaded the bases with two outs in the second, thanks to a single and a couple of walks. Fairchild then swung on a first-pitch changeup from Jan Novak and drove it 389 feet into left-center field for the slam.
Chang then picked up two more RBIs with a single in the fourth inning to stretch Chinese Taipei's lead to 8-0.
A sacrifice fly by Chen Chen-Wei in the top fifth made it a 9-0 game for Chinese Taipei.
Chang wasn't done, as he drove in Fairchild with a sixth-inning single for the team's 10th run and his fourth RBI of the game.
Chinese Taipei scored four more runs that inning after Chang's hit, and the game was called after seven innings on a mercy rule.
A game can end early if a team leads by at least 15 runs after five innings or by at least 10 runs after seven innings.