Taipei, Aug. 26 (CNA) Taiwan defeated Japan 6-4 on the final day at the 11th BFA U15 Baseball Championship in Weihai, China on Saturday to clinch the tournament title.
With the scores tied at one apiece through the first four innings, the stalemate was broken in the top of the fifth after Taiwan overtook Japan by scoring four runs to go ahead 5-1.
At the top of the fifth, Yen Po-hsun (顏鉑勛) hit a grounder to first land at second base.
Sung Mi-chia (宋米家) then made a hit to the right field to help send Yen home to take the first of the four runs.
Hsing Shih-hsien (幸世賢) then made another hit to provide Taiwan with another run, followed by the last two runs scored by taking advantage of opportunities made possible thanks to errors from Japanese players and a number of good hits from Taiwan's batters.
Japan's attempts to catch Taiwan were somewhat fruitful in the bottom of the fifth when Japan's number of strategic hits paired with the successful stealing of a base led Japan to conclude the inning 5-3, narrowing the gap between both countries.
After an uneventful sixth inning, the top of the final inning saw Hsing score Taiwan's final run after he landed on first base before successfully stealing second, which was then followed by a run back to home after making use of Chen Chin-feng's (陳金豐) hit to make it 6-3.
Although Japan managed to bag one more run at the bottom of the seventh, Taiwan's reliever Tu I-tse (杜翊澤) was able to stop the bleeding and close out the game for the title.
Alongside Tu, Taiwan's starter Fang Shao-chi (方紹齊) made up Taiwan's two defenders on the pitcher's mound.
Taiwan's victory over Japan also settled a score between both teams following the fifth day of the 2023 competition when Taiwan trailed Japan 5-6 in the Super Round.
Also known as the Asian "AA" Baseball Championship, the biennial competition was held from Aug. 20-26 in Weihai, and saw a total of eight Asian countries take part.
Since the first BFA U15 Baseball Championship, Taiwan has won the title seven times, including in 2023, making it the country which won the most amount of times when the competition was first initiated in 2000.
This year's title was Taiwan's first since 2015.
The championship is sponsored by the Baseball Federation of Asia (BFA).
