(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
   Team Europe registers first win in Asia Winter Baseball League
Nederlands
 TAICHUNG (Taiwan) -
Team Europe played a great game on Thursday (December 3) and won 14-7 against the professionals of the NPB Team from Japan.
On Monday, the European squad suffered a huge 24-3 loss in its first game against the Japanese professionals.
Today, it was Team Europe that was the best of the two teams and registered its first victory in the Asia Winter Baseball League.
In the evening, the KBO Team (South Korea) won 4-1 against league-leader Chinese Taipei National Training Team.
With the win, the Korean squad moved into second place.
The Europeans collected 14 basehits in the game, led by Italian Mattia Mercuri, who went 3-for-4, including a 3-run homerun.
Mercuri was named MVP of the game.
Lars Huijer started for Team Europe and threw four scoreless innings.
His relievers issued eight walks, but the Europeans held onto the lead.
| Standings |
| # | Team | G | W | L | T |
| 1 | Chinese Taipei Training Team | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 |
| 2 | KBO Team | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 |
| 3 | NPB Team | 5 | 2 | 2 | 1 |
| 4 | CPBL Team | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 5 | Team Europe | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 |
European manager Gilberto 'Gibo' Gerali stated afterwards: ,,It was a great test of the characters of the boys''.
On the day-off on Wednesday, Gerali already said to Grand Slam * Stats & News: ''We have been together for only a few days and it takes some time to build a team.
But we'll get better''.
Today, Gerali's words were confirmed.
The team is getting better and won its first game.
In the game on Tuesday, the European team already showed progression in hitting and also some nice defensive plays were in that game against the professional CPBL Team.
The European Team plays is next game on Friday (December 4), starting at 12 PM local time (5 AM Dutch time).
The team then meets the professional KBO Team (South Korea) for the second time.
Last Saturday, the first game between the two teams (which was the opening game of the league) ended in a 9-9 tie.
(December 3)
(more later)
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