   Dutch Baseball Women Team close to victory vs. Taipei
Nederlands
 MIYAZAKI (Japan) -
Today (Wednesday, September 3), on Day 3 of the Women's Baseball World Cup in Japan, the Netherlands Women Baseball Team played a strong game against Chinese Taipei.
The Orange squad flirted with a victory, but in the end was left empty-handed, losing 4-2.
In 2010, when the Dutch Team first participated in a World Championship, it lost 11-0 to Taipei in Venezuela.
Two years ago, in Canada, the Dutch Team met Taipei twice.
The first game ended in a 17-3 loss, the second game in a 7-5 loss.
With the loss, the Dutch Team ended in fourth place in Group B and will play for fifth through eighth place in the Second Round, which opens on Thursday.
The Dutch then will meet the third place team from Group A, which probably will be Venezuela.
At the Miyazaki Ivy Stadium, the Dutch Team opened the score right away in the first at bat off of lefthanded starter Chiao-Yun Huang.
Kyra van Genderen led off with a single through the leftside, then advanced to third base when an error was made on a sacrifice bunt by Esther Maliepaard, who herself ended up on second base.
With runners on second and third base, Marije Filius delivered a single, which brought in the lead runner and gave the Orange squad an 1-0 lead.
Moments later, an error followed on a grounder by Claudia Kranendonk that led to the second run.
Filius was then picked off second base and a foul-out accounted for the second out.
Famke Gildemacher followed with another single, but two runners stranded when a pop-fly ended the at bat.
In the next innings, the Dutch Team initially hold onto the lead, but in the end the margin was too small.
While it reached base a few more times, no runs were added.
In the second inning, Annemiek Koehorst singled with one out, but was left behind.
In the third, Claudia Kranendonk and Sofie van de Wiel both walked with two outs, then a force out ended the inning.
In the fourth, Koehorst walked with one out, but stranded on second base.
In the meantime, Dutch pitcher Loes Asmus silenced Taipei.
The righthander gave up a lead-off double in the bottom of the first inning and walked a batter with one out, but the two Asian runners stranded when a strikeout and line out followed to end the inning.
In the second inning, Taipei got runners on first and third base when a flyout ended the at bat.
Taipei again got two runners with two outs in the third, but this time a grounder ended the inning.
In the fourth, Asmus retired the side.
After the Dutch team was retired in order in the top of the fifth inning, Taipei was productive in its fifth at bat.
Lead-off hitter Yu-Yin Hsieh reached on a throwing error and stole second base.
She then scored the first run for Taipei when Ya-Ting Wen followed with a double.
The Dutch defense then recovered.
After a flyout, a line drive was caught by short stop Sofie van de Wiel and then a foul-out ended the inning.
Taipei then finally was able to come alongside in the bottom of the sixth inning and then also turned the game its way.
With one out, Ya-Lin Wu was hit by a pitch and her pinch-runner Shih-Yun Lee stole second base and scored the tying run when Yu-Chen Hsu followed with a double.
Hereafter, Marijke van Veen took over the pitching for Loes Asmus, but unfortunately, Taipei put the pressure on.
An error on a grounder by Chun-Fang Chiu put runners on first and third base.
After Chiu had advanced on a wild pitch, Taipei took over the lead on a sacrifice fly by Yu-Yin Hsieh, then added another run on a single by Ya-Ting Wen.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Dutch Team tried to do something back for the final time.
With two outs, Kyra van Genderen singled, but closer Chi Tseng then followed with her third strikeout in the inning to seal the win and earn a save.
(September 3)
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