(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
  Small loss for Team Europe in Asia Winter Baseball League
Nederlands
 TAICHUNG (Taiwan) -
A day after suffering a huge 24-3 loss, Team Europe recovered and played a fine game today in the Asia Winter Baseball League.
On Tuesday (December 1), the squad lost 9-8 to the professionals of the Taiwan Beer CPBL Team in its fourth game of the season.
In the evening today, the Chinese Taipei National Training Team surprised with a 3-1 victory against the professionals from the Japanese NPB Team, which on Monday had won big against the Europeans.
With this result, the Taiwanese squad now leads the league after four days of competition.
Today, the European squad outhit the Taiwanese professionals 10-6 and held a 6-0 lead in the middle of the second inning!
In the first inning, the Europeans rallied for four runs off of starter Yu-Yu Fan.
With one out, Sebastiano Poma singled, advanced on a wild pitch, then scored the first run on a double by Alberto Mineo.
Hereafter, Kevin Weijgertse reached on an error and the bases got loaded when Chris Howard was hit by a pitch.
The next run was scored when Mattia Mercuri walked and a following single by Maik Ehmcke accounted for two runs and lifted the lead to 4-0.
In the second at bat, Freddy Noguera led off with a walk, then Urving Kemp doubled.
They scored on a following single by Poma to make it a 6-0 score.
The Taiwanese squad answered with a 4-run rally in the bottom of the second inning.
With one out, Kai-Wen Cheng doubled and Fu-Lin Kuo followed with a 2-run homerun off of starter Javier Sanchez.
Hereafter, the Spanish righthander walked Chia-Jung Liang and Yu-Ta Tsai.
A single by Tao-Jung Tseng and sacrifice fly by Chang-Yung Fang then narrowed the Taiwanese deficit to 6-4.
In the top of the third inning, with two outs, Ehmcke walked and Rashid Gerard singled, but were left behind.
A very scary moment then followed in the bottom of the third inning when Italian pitcher Filippo Crepaldi was hit behind his right ear by a line drive.
The righthander had just taken over the pitching from Sanchez and his third delivery to Wei-Ta Su ended in a comeback line drive that hit him on the head.
While trying to avoid the ball and felling down after being hit, Crepaldi also sustained a minor sprain of his left ankle.
Crepaldi was attended immediately by medical personnel and was transported to a local hospital where X-rays were made.
Luckily, no serious injuries were diagnosed there.
During the Premier12, Crepaldi pitched 2 2/3 inning in relief against the Netherlands Kingdom Team and gave up six hits and five runs.
The injury almost surely must have effected the team in the remainder of the game, which eventually turned the way of the CPBL Team.
The European squad committed four defensive errors, while seven more walks were issued to the Taiwanese batters.
| Standings |
| # | Team | G | W | L | T |
| 1 | Chinese Taipei Training Team | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | NPB Team | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | CPBL Team | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| | KBO Team | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 | Team Europe | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 |
In the bottom of the sixth inning, with the bases loaded, Dutch pitcher Robin Schel took over the European pitching.
The lefthanded pitcher was then assisted by fellow Dutchman Rashid Gerard, also his teammate at L&D Amsterdam Pirates, who made a great play at third base to eliminate the batter, who had connected on the first delivery by Schel.
Earlier in the game, Gerard already had made another fine defensive play.
In the top of the seventh inning, trailing 8-6, Alberto Mineo reached second base on an error by first baseman Wei-Ta Su.
Hereafter, Kevin Weijgertse connected.
The ball he hit appeared the jump from behind home plate onto fair territoty, resulting in a double play.
Manager Gilberto Gerali and 3B Coach Ivan Rodriguez argued with the Home Plate Umpire that it was a foul ball.
But after the 4-man umpiring crew held a brief discussion, the call was not reversed.
With two outs, Chris Howard homered to make it an 8-7 score.
Earlier in the game, Howard already had singled and doubled.
In the bottom of the seventh, Italian centerfielder Sebastiano Poma made a great catch to support Schel.
The Europeans then came alongside in the the top of the eighth inning.
German Maik Ehmcke led off with a walk, but was forced out on second base on a bunt by Rashid Gerard.
Hereafter, Czech pinch-hitter Premek Chroust doubled to put runners on second and third base.
Luca Martone then entered the game as pinch-runner for Gerard, but was unable to score when Urving Kemp flied out.
After a pitching change, Martone then did score the tying run on a wild pitch.
The CPBL Team scored the winning run in the ninth inning off of Dutch reliever Matz Schutte.
Chan-Sheng Huang led off with a single, then his pinch-runner Chih-Hsien Lin moved on a sacrifice bunt by Hsuan-Tsung Fang.
To set up a force play, next batter Yu-Hsien Chu was walked intentionally, but then the bases got loaded when Wei-Ting Lin received a 'normal' walk.
Hereafter, Wei-Ta Su flied out to leftfielder Urving Kemp, who threw the ball to the plate when Lin took off from third base to score.
A close play followed and the runner was ruled safe.
While it appeared that Lin slid into catcher Howard, he might just have touched the plate with his leg inches before being tagged.
European Manager Gilberto Gerali asked for a challenge, but the call was upheld and that ended the game.
Su, who batted in the winning run, has also delivered an important 2-run double in the fourth inning and was named the game's Most Valuable Player.
While Gerali was positive about the game, his main concern afterwards of course was the condition of Crepaldi.
In the upcoming days, it will become clear whether or not the pitcher will return to action or needs more rest.
The European Team has the day off on Wednesday, then plays is next game on Thursday (December 3), starting at 12 PM local time (5 AM Dutch time).
The team meets the strong professional NPB Team for the second time.
(December 1)
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