(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Chinese Taipei wins first U21 World Title
Nederlands
 TAICHUNG (Taiwan) -
Host Chinese Taipei captured the first-ever 21Under World Championship-title today with a big 9-0 shutout-win in the final against Japan.
The last day of this new tournament began with the game to decide fifth and sixth place.
That game ended in a surprise, as the Czech Republic won 6-5 vs. Australia to finish in fifth place and become the highest qualified European country in the first edition of the event.
Italy finished in seventh place, while the Netherlands ended in the ninth spot of the 11-team field of participants.
...Dutch Umpire Winfried Berkvens was behind...
...the plate in the 5th/6th place game...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
Next on the agenda today was the bronze medal game.
South Korea won 10-4 vs. Nicaragua to win the bronze medal, meaning the top-3 was formed by the three Asian participating countries.
All individual awards also went to players of these three countries, except for one spot in the All Star Team.
The day began with the match-up between the Czechs and the Aussies.
Dutch Umpire Winfried Berkvens was behind the plate (in a 6-man crew) and the game developed into a thriller.
Initially, Australia was leading 4-0 after four innings.
This appeared to be comfortable, but then the Czechs struck from the sixth inning on.
In the top of the sixth inning, two runs were scored thanks to a double by Martin Cervenka and a grounder by Tomás Junec.
The Czechs then rallied for three runs with two outs in the seventh at bat to take a 5-4 lead!
Facing a new pitcher, Ivan Aubrecht led off with a walk and advanced to third base on two grounders.
He then scored on a bunt-single (!) by Jakub Ondrácek.
The bases then got loaded when Petr Síla also singled and Adam Hajtmar walked.
This brought in new pitcher Wilson Lee, but he was greeted with a single by Martin Cervenka, bringing in two runs to give the Czechs a 5-4 lead.
Moments later, the inning ended when Hajtmar was eliminated in a rundown between home and third, while Cervenka took off to steal second base.
Australia recovered from the sudden deficit and tied the score in the home half of the seventh inning.
Zachary Shepherd led off with a single and scored on an one-out double by Robbie Perkins, but the Aussies stranded two runners.
The suspense then grew in the next two at bats.
In the top of the 8th inning, the Czechs left runners on second and third base.
In the bottom of the 8th, Australia got the bases loaded with only one out after three walks and a wild pitch.
The Czech defense then prevented Australia from scoring with two successful force outs, one at the plate, the other on second base to end the inning.
In the top of the 9th inning, Joshua Guyer took over the pitching for Australia.
With one out, he walked Síla, then gave up a single to Hajtmar.
Síla tried to advance to third base, but was thrown out there.
Next, Hajtmar stole second base and it again was Martin Cervenka, who delivered an inmportant hit.
He singled into leftfield to bring in Hajtmar and gave the Czechs a 6-5 lead!
In the bottom of the 9th inning, Ben Leslie led off with a single, then pinch-hitter Aaron Sayers grounded into a double play.
Jan Tomek, who had relieved starter Marek Cervenka in the seventh inning, then struckout Jared Cruz to end the game and start the Czech celebrations!
In the bronze medal-game, South Korea collected only one basehit more than Nicaragua (11-10), but scored six more runs.
Leading 1-0, the Koreans struck with three runs in the fourth and four runs in the fifth inning to decide the game.
In this game, Italian umpire Fabrizio Fabrizi was behind the plate.
In the final, Taiwan collected 13 basehits off of six pitchers.
First baseman Tai-chun Yang went 4-for-5 and had two runs batted in.
Three Taiwanese hurlers gave up only four hits to Japan.
The Taipei-squad took an early lead, scoring three runs in the second inning.
The team then added two runs in the fourth, seventh and eighth inning.
| Individual Awards | . | All Star Team |
| Award | Winner | Team | . | Pos. | Player | Team |
| Most Valuable Player | Chun-Lin Kuo | Taiwan | . | P (starter) | Naoyuki Uwasawa | Japan |
| Outstanding Defensive Player | Taisei Makihara | Japan | . | P (reliever) | Yi-Hao Lin | Taiwan |
| Best Hitter | Seiya Suzuki | Japan | . | C | Chih-Hsien Lin | Taiwan |
| Best Pitcher (ERA) | Chia-Hao Sung | Taiwan | . | 1B | Tai-Chun Yang | Taiwan |
| Best Pitcher (W-L) | Donghyun Choi | South Korea | . | 2B | Fumiya Hojo | Japan |
| Most Runs Batted In | Dohyun Kim | South Korea | . | 3B | Tsung-Hsien Lee | Taiwan |
| Most Homeruns | Dohyun Kim | South Korea | . | SS | Taisei Makihara | Japan |
| Most Stolen Bases | Jawook Koo | South Korea | . | OF | Yu-Ning Tsao | Taiwan |
| Most Runs Scored | Chih-Chieh Su | Taiwan | . | OF | Seiya Suzuki | Japan |
| . | OF | Arnol Rizo Blanco | Nicaragua |
| . | DH | Dohyun Kim | South Korea |
| Final Standings |
| # | Team | . | # | Team |
| 1 | TAIWAN | . | 7 | ITALY |
| 2 | JAPAN | . | 8 | VENEZUELA |
| 3 | SOUTH KOREA | . | 9 | NETHERLANDS |
| 4 | NICARAGUA | . | 10 | NEW ZEALAND |
| 5 | CZECH REPUBLIC | . | 11 | MEXICO |
| 6 | AUSTRALIA | . |
(November 16)
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