(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
  Team Europe draws a tie in game vs. Taiwanese pros
Nederlands
 TAICHUNG (Taiwan) -
A day after a rainout on Thursday, it was sunny in Taichung and a fine day to play baseball in the Asia Winter Baseball League on Friday (December 11).
Team Europe met the professional Taiwan Beer CPBL Team in the afternoon and that game ended in a 4-4 tie.
This was the third tie in the season for both the European squad and the CPBL Team.
Team Europe failed to hold onto a lead twice.
The team first took the lead in the second inning.
In the ninth inning, it turned a 3-2 deficit into a 4-3 lead, but again was unable to hold onto it.
In the evening, the NPB Team from Japan won 7-3 against league-leader Chinese Taipei National Training Team.
With this, the KBO Team, which had no game, moved into first place.
Team Europe has the day off on Saturday, then plays its next game on Sunday (December 13), starting at 12 PM local time (5 AM Dutch time).
The squad then meets the KBO Team from South Korea.
(December 11)
In today's game, Team Europe opened the score in the second at bat off of starter Hua-Ching Lin.
The righthander had retired the side in the first inning.
In the second, Kevin Weijgertse drove the ball into deep leftfield where it was caught.
But hereafter, Chris Howard hit the ball somewhat further for a homerun to give the European squad an 1-0 lead.
This was the second homerun of the season for the German player.
In the third, Team Europe had another good start, as Luca Martone led off with a double.
However, he stranded on second base, as the next three batters were retired.
Owen Ozanich started for Team Europe and did well.
The French righthander got two quick outs in the first inning, then appeared to strikeout the next batter.
However, the Taiwanese umpires seem to favor a low strikezone.
Ozanich threw an attactive pitch, but instead of calling it 'strike-three', the Home Plate Umpire ruled it a ball, then the batter walked moments later.
Do batters that are walked by European pitchers often score, this one stranded, as a flyout ended the at bat.
With an 1-0 lead in the bottom of the second inning, Ozanich again got two quick outs, the second one coming on a nice play by third baseman Premek Chroust, resulting in a close play at first base.
Ozanich then walked another batter, but he also was left behind.
However, in the bottom of the third, the Frenchman gave up the tying run.
With one out, Yao-Hsun Yang reached on an infield-hit, then advanced on a grounder by Hsuan-Tsung Fang and scored on a following single by Chia-Jung Liang to make it an 1-1 score.
The inning ended hereafter when leftfielder Urving Kemp made a nice diving catch on a line drive by Kai-Wen Cheng.
In the top of the fourth inning, Team Europe got another opportunity to score, but failed to do so.
With one out, Chris Howard drove the ball into right-centerfield and barely missed hitting a second homerun.
The ball was hit off of the fence and Howard had to settle for a double.
He then advanced to third base on a bunt-single by Federico Giordani.
That also resulted in a very close play at first base, but the umpire there again made the correct call.
Moments later, Giordani was caught stealing, but Team Europe then got the bases loaded when Premek Chroust and Alessandro Deotto both walked.
But Lin avoided giving up runs, as he ended the inning by striking out Luca Martone.
In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Taiwanese opponent took a 2-1 lead.
Ozanich began with a strikeout, but then gave up a double to Kuo-Lin Lo, which just stayed within fair territory when is crossed third base down the leftfield-line.
He then advanced on a grounder and scored on a single by Yu-Ta Tsai.
Hereafter, Ozanich finished with another strikeout, his third in the game.
Before today, the French hurler had struckout nine batters in 9 1/3 inning during his four previous pitching appearances.
With that, he is one of the more successful pitchers in the European squad.
In the top of the fifth, Urving Kemp led off with a walk to become the eighth European baserunner.
The CPBL Team had had six baserunners so far, but led 2-1.
CPBL-starter Lin followed with two strikeouts, then the inning ended when Kemp was caught stealing.
The CPBL-squad increased its lead to 3-1 moments later when Yao-Hsun Yang led off the bottom of the fifth with a homerun.
Hereafter, Ozanich again recovered fine, as he retired the next three batters, adding a strikeout.
Unfortunately, he wasn't supported with more runs by the European offense, which had left four runners behind in scoring position in the first five innings.
In the top of the sixth inning, submariner Wen-Tseng Hsu took over the Taiwanese pitching and retired the European side.
Ozanich's afternoon on the mound also ended after five innings.
He was relieved by Leonel Cespedes, also from France.
The righthander walked a batter with two outs, but then closed with a strikeout.
In the top of the seventh inning, with an apparent 'comfortable' 3-1 lead, the Taiwanese coaching made several defensive changes.
A new outfielder entered, as well as two new middle infielders and a new pitcher.
But suddenly, the lead appeared not to be so comfortable after all.
Heng-Hsiao Kuo took over the pitching, but ran into problems quickly.
He walked lead-off hitter Premek Chroust, then gave up a runscoring double down the rightfield-line to Alessandro Deotto that narrowed the deficit to 3-2.
For Deotto, this was only his second basehit of the season.
Kuo then also walked pinch-hitter Freddy Noguera and was relieved by Tsung-Ru Yu.
With one strike on batter Urving Kemp, European Manager Gilberto Gerali brought in Sam Buelens as pinch-runner at second base for Deotto.
However, while Yu was about to start his next wind-up, Buelens took off from second base in what appeared to be a steal-attempt.
Yu stepped off the plate and eliminated the Belgian professional player.
Hereafter, Yu also retired the next two batters to end an inning, which initially looked promising for the European squad.
In the bottom of the seventh, Cespedes gave up an one-out single to Yao-Hsun Yang, then was relieved by Matz Schutte.
The Dutch righthander began with a strikeout, but then Yang stole second base moments later.
To set up a force play, an intentional walk was issued to the next batter, but a groundout ended the at bat.
| Standings |
| # | Team | G | W | L | T |
| 1 | KBO Team | 9 | 4 | 2 | 4 |
| 2 | Chinese Taipei Training Team | 10 | 6 | 4 | 0 |
| 3 | Taiwan Beer CPBL Team | 10 | 4 | 3 | 3 |
| 4 | NPB Team | 11 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| 5 | Team Europe | 11 | 1 | 7 | 3 |
In the top of the eighth, the CPBL again went to the bullpen and Le Chou became the fourth Taiwanese pitcher.
The righthander struckout the first two batters he faced, but then walked Chris Howard.
Daniel Fernandes took over at first base as pinch-runner, but he stranded when Federico Giordani's pop-up into foul territory was caught.
While connecting, Giordani sustained a hand-injury and was replaced out of precaution.
In the bottom of the eighth, Schutte retired the side.
Three batters hit the ball a long way, but they were caught by each of the three outfielders.
The top of the ninth inning began with the CPBL team still leading 3-2, but in this final at bat of the game, two pitchers were credited with a Blown Save.
Hao-Chun Chiu became the new pitcher for the Taiwanese squad, but walked lead-off hitter Premek Chroust, then also next batter Alberto Mineo.
The two advanced on a wild pitch, then Fredy Noguera followed with a runscoring single that tied the score at 3-3.
Noguera earned his first RBI of the season, while Chiu was credited with a Blown Save.
Hereafter, Urving Kemp lined out, but then Mattia Mercuri reached on an error that enabled Mineo to score.
And with that, Team Europe took a 4-3 lead.
Next batter Sebastiano Poma then struckout on a questionable third strike.
Poma made a check-swing on a ball in the ground and appeared to hold back his bat enough, but is was ruled a swing by the 3B Umpire and so, the Italian struckout.
Hereafter, Wei-Chen Pan took over the pitching
He struckout Kevin Weijgertse to end the inning, but Team Europe had taken a 4-3 lead!
Lefthander Gianny Fracchiolla took over the European pitching in the bottom of the ninth.
The Italian began with a walk, then the runner got into scoring position via a sacrifice bunt.
Hereafter, Fracchiolla struckout Yao-Hsun Yang, who was 3-for-4 with a homerun earlier in the game and was named MVP afterwards.
With one out away from the victory, Fracchiolla gave up a runscoring single to pinch-hitter Tao-Jung Tseng.
That made it a 4-4 score and with that, Fracciolla became the second pitcher in this inning with a Blown Save.
Tseng advanced to second base on an error by rightfielder Maik Ehmcke, but he stranded in scoring position, as Fracciolla closed the inning (and the game) with another strikeout.
And so, 4-4 also became the final score.
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