(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo by Henk Seppen)
 Venezuela stunts vs. USA; walk-off win Japan; 2nd win Canada
Nederlands
    TAOYUAN / TAICHUNG / TAIPEI / DOULIU (Taiwan) -
Day 4 of the Premier12 was the first full day of the event.
Today (Wednesday, November 11), all 12 teams got into action, with six games being played in four cities.
After today, Japan and Canada are the only two unbeaten teams.
Tomorrow and in the weekend, again six games will be played daily.
Friday will be a day off.
The team of the Kingdom of the Netherlands failed to hold onto a 4-1 lead and lost 6-5 to Cuba at Taichung.
Recap of this game
The other games played today are listed beneath.
At Taoyuan Baseball Stadium in Taoyuan, the day began with a surprise come-from-behind 7-5 victory of Venezuela vs. USA, which was outhit 13-9.
The Americans took an early 1-0 lead in the first inning, but with one out in the opening at bat, the game was stopped due to heavy rain.
A two hour-delay followed, before the game resumed again.
USA added a run in the third inning, but Venezuela then came alongside in the fourth and rallied for three runs in the top of the fifth inning to take a 5-2 lead.
Team USA narrowed the deficit to 5-4 moments later, but Venezuela added two insurance runs in the seventh to make it a 7-4 score.
The Americans were able to score only one more run in the bottom of the seventh.
'Big' Venezuelan designated hitter Luis Antonio Jimenez was 3-for-5, scored twice and batted in five runs, including two with a homerun that tied the score in the fourth inning.
In the fifth, he doubled in two runs to put Venezuela ahead.
In the evening, at Douliu Baseball Stadium in Douliu, Canada also won its second game and registered a 2-0 shutout-win vs. Puerto Rico.
The game remained scoreless for six innings, then Canada scored both of their runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
In that at bat, Pete Orr led off with a single, then Tyler O'Neill followed with a homerun.
In this game, Dutch scorer Linda Steijger was one of the three Official Scorers.
At Tienmu Stadium in Taipei, Japan nipped Mexico 6-5.
Japan led 4-1 after three innings and 5-2 after five, but then Mexico scored a run in the sixth, seventh and ninth inning to come alongside.
In the bottom of the ninth, Japan scored the winning run.
Mexico, which surprised with a win vs. Venezuela on Tuesday, opened the score in the second inning on a lead-off homerun by Robert Lopez.
In the bottom of the second, Japan took a 2-1 lead when Nobuhiro Nakata also homered.
With the score at 5-5, Tetsuto Yamada led off the bottom of the ninth with a double.
With one out and after an intentional walk, Yamada scored the winning run on a walk-off single by Nobuhiro Nakata, who batted in five of the six runs in this game.
At Taoyuan, South Korea appeared to have won big vs. the Dominican Republic, 10-1.
However, it were the Dominicans who led 1-0 after the sixth inning!
The Koreans then scored their ten runs in the last three at bats, highlighted by a 5-run rally in the eighth!
South Korea outhit the Dominican Republic, 11-4.
The Korean defense made three errors in the first six innings, but then made some nice plays in the final three at bats when it turned the game its way.
Dae-Ho Lee hit a 2-run homerun in the seventh inning to give South Korea a 2-1 lead.
He contributed with three runs batted in, as did Keunwoo Jeong and Hyunsoo Kim.
In this game, Dutch umpire Winfried Berkvens was behind the plate.
At Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taichung, Chinese Taipei won 7-1 vs. Italy, which had lost with the same score the day before.
The Taiwanese squad set the tone right away in the first at bat, scoring two runs.
Italy scored its lone run in the fifth inning when Alex Sambucci homered, but trailed 4-0 at that moment.
Sambucci had two of Italy's three basehits.
Chih-Sheng Lin (third inning) and Yen-Wen Kuo (ninth inning) homered for Taiwan, that outhit Italy, 11-3.
(November 11)
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