Chinese Taipei win back-to-back U-12 Softball World Cup titles
The final day of the II WBSC U-12 Softball World Cup on Sunday at Jin-Long Stadium was full of drama and entertainment as the medal games both went to extra innings, with hosts Chinese Taipei winning back-to-back titles after beating the Czech Republic, and Singapore claiming the bronze medal against Hong Kong.
Yi-Cheng Liang was the game-changer in the sixth inning for Chinese Taipei as he scored the winning run to secure the title with a 3-2 victory over the Czech Republic.
“There wasa lot of pressure for me and I was so nervous when I reached second to thirdbase, but when I was able to run to the home plate, I felt relieved and sohappy,” Liang said.
The Czechs scored the first two runs in the game but Chinese Taipei trailed by one run by the end of the first inning with Liang also scoring the opening run for the hosts. Chinese Taipei tied the tied game in the fourth before Laing performed his extra innings heroics.
“We startedthe game with a lot of errors and we gave away two runs to our opponents. Theatmosphere was quite intense and we felt a lot of pressure in the beginning. Sowe tried to adjust our own plays and watched the speed of the ball from theCzech pitcher to find a way to counter that and force some errors on them too.
In the end, we won the game because of their errors,” Chinese Taipei coachTsi-Chu-Wu said.
“I am just overwhelmed to pitch in this game and to win MVP. I want to thank my coach, my teammates and the parents who always support us. The only thing on my mind in this game is to get as many strikeouts as I can and to limit the strong Czech Republic batters from converting many hits into runs,” tournament MVP Yuan-Hsi Tien added.
Chinese Taipei have now won the two first editions of the U-12 Softball World Cup while the Czech Republic collected their best ever result in the WBSC tournament with the silver medal bettering the bronze medal from the 2019 edition and a second bronze at the WBSC U-18 Softball World Cup in 2020.
Meanwhile, the bronze medal game between Singapore and Hong Kong also went down-to-the-wire, with the Southeast Asian squad rallying to a 9-8 victory in extras.
With the game locked at 6-6 going into the tie breaker, Singapore's Edwin See loaded the bases with a single, leading to a three-run score in the top of the sixth. Hong Kong replied with two runs of their own only to fall short with Colin Cheung being tagged out at home plate.
“It’s verygreat exposure for both teams. This game was played with high intensity and pressure,and I think both teams delivered and played well today. We are evenly matchedand when you play a game like this, the team that makes the least mistakes and makesthe most hits wins the game,” Singapore head coach Elaine Chua said.
Singapore’s bronze medal victory was a redemption for their 7-6 loss to Hong Kong in the Opening Round and their first ever podium finish in a WBSC tournament.