(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
 Japan & Canada remain unbeaten in Premier12; Cuba wins in 10th
Nederlands
    TAOYUAN / TAICHUNG / TAIPEI / DOULIU (Taiwan) -
On Thursday (November 12), Japan and Canada remain the unbeaten leaders of their respective pools, winning two thrillers today.
What became a thriller was the match-up between Puerto Rico and Cuba.
Puerto Rico trailed 7-2 in the last at bat, but came alongside to force extra innings in Cuba eventually won.
South Korea and USA both registered big scores, both ending their game via the mercy-rule.
The team of the Kingdom of the Netherlands on Thursday-evening also played an abbreviated game, winning 16-1 in seven innings vs. Italy at Douliu.
Recap of this game
A recap of the other games played today is listed beneath.
Friday will be a day off, they a full schedule follows again on Saturday and Sunday.
Dutch umpire Winfried Berkvens didn't got into action today, as he had an assignment as back-up umpire.
For all games, five umpires are assigned with one being a back-up umpire (who also is in uniform) to take over in case of an injury.
Dutch official scorer Linda Steijger however was assigned to two games, which were the thrillers in Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium in Taichung.
The first was the 10-inning match-up between Cuba and Puerto Rico, the second the game between Chinese Taipei and Canada.
(November 12)
At Taoyuan, the day began with a 13-2 win of South Korea against Venezuela.
The Koreans scored three runs in the first at bat, Venezuela scored twice in the third, but from the fourth inning on, the Asians added ten more runs to end the game in 6 1/2 inning.
South Korea collected 14 basehits, including four by third baseman Jae-gyun Hwang, who also scored twice and had three runs batted in.
Hwang became the first player to hit two homeruns in a Premier12-game.
He led off the fourth inning with a solo-shot, then added another solo-homerun in the next at bat.
Juan Carl Apodaca was 3-for-3 for Venezuela and he led off the top of the third with a homerun.
At Taichung, Cuba appeared to win comfortably when it entered the top of the ninth inning with a 7-2 lead vs. Puerto Rico.
But that changed, as a 5-run rally followed.
Cuba eventually won 8-7 in ten innings.
Cuba also had some difficulties earlier in the game.
They scored twice in the first at bat, but then Puerto Rico scored in the third and fourth inning to come alongside.
The tying run was scored when Aldo Mendez led off the fourth with a homerun.
Cuba immediately re-took the lead by scoring two runs in the bottom of the fourth and went on to take more distance to 7-2 in the following four at bats, which included a solo-homerun by Alfredo Despaigne in the fifth inning.
In the top of the ninth inning, just after Cuban Manager Victor Mesa had made four defensive changes, Puerto Rico suddenly rallied for five runs to come alongside for the second time and force extra innings.
Highlighting the rally was a 3-run homerun by Richard Thon that made it a 7-7 score!
Cuba then scored the winning run in the bottom of the tenth inning, the first time the tie-break rule came into effect in this tournament.
With runners on first and third base and one out, a force play-grounder by Yasiel Santoya almost ended in a double play.
But Santoya was ruled safe in a close play at first base and that resulted in a walk-off run batted in, as Yordan Manduley scored the winning run from third base.
At Taipei, the USA shutout Mexico 10-0 in eight innings.
Mexico had played two great games, winning vs. Venezuela and losing only 6-5 to Japan.
On the other hand, the USA had won comfortably vs. the Dominican Republic, but ended up short against Venezuela.
Today, the USA collected 13 basehits, which included a 5-for-5 performance by Matt McBride, who scored twice and batted in three runs.
Adam Frazier went 3-for-5.
The Americans opened the score with two runs in the second inning and added two in the next.
In the sixth inning, three more runs were scored to increase the lead to 7-0.
In the seventh, a double by Frazier and a grounder by Dan Rohlfing made it a 9-0.
And in the eighth, the 10-run difference was reached on a single by McBride.
Mexico reached second base only twice off of three pitchers.
American starter Zack Segovia pitched six strong innings.
He retired eight consecutive batters from the second through fourth inning and was supported with two double plays.
At Taoyuan, Japan led 2-0 after six innings against the Dominican Republic, which then came alongside.
Japan, which was outhit 8-5, re-took the lead in the eighth to win 4-2 and remain unbeaten in Pool B.
In the first inning, Tetsuto Yamada doubled with two outs and scored on an error.
Japan doubled its lead in the fourth when Yamada scored again.
This time, he led off with a walk and scored on a single by Sho Nakata.
The Dominicans came alongside in the seventh.
Teoscar Hernandez led off with a ground-rule double, then scored with one out when Ronny Rodriguez homered.
Japan re-took the lead in the eighth.
With one out, Yamada and Yoshitomo Tsutsugo walked, then advanced on a balk and scored on a following double by Nakata.
At Taichung, Chinese Taipei and Canada played a thriller in a great atmosphere.
The game lasted three hours and 45 minutes in front of more than 10.000 noisy and cheering spectators.
Canada won 9-8 to remain unbeaten in Pool A.
Canada trailed 2-0 after two innings, but led 4-2 after four.
Taiwan then came alongside, but Canada re-took the lead via three runs in the top of the sixth.
After Taiwan got one run back in its sixth, Canada took more distance by scoring twice in the eighth.
Taiwan then rallied for three runs in the bottom of the eighth to narrow the deficit to 9-8, but then the inning ended with a controversial call.
It was a high-hiting game in which 25 basehits were registered, including five homeruns.
Chinese Taipei opened the score in the second inning on a 2-run homerun by Chun-Hsiu Chen.
After scoring once in the third, Canada scored three runs in the fourth on four hits, including RBI-doubles by Sean Jamieson (one-run) and Jordan Lennerton (2-run).
But Taiwan made it a 4-4 score in the fifth when Po-Jung Wang hit a 2-run homerun.
In the sixth inning, Canada took a 7-4 lead, thanks to a runscoring single by Lennerton and a 2-run double by Brock Kjeldgaard.
In the bottom of the sixth, Taiwan got a run back when Chih-Sheng Lin led off with a homerun.
Canada then appeared to seal the win in the top of the eighth when Tyler O'Neill and Rene Tosoni both homered to lift the lead to 9-5.
But then an exciting bottom of the eighth began and Taiwan scored three runs with two outs.
With one out, pinch-hitter Chih-Kang Kao doubled and advanced on a grounder.
He scored on a single by Chun-Hsiu Chen, then pinch-hitter Dai-Kang Yang singled after a pitching change.
After Yang was replaced by pinch-runner Yung-Chi Chen, Po-Jung Wang followed with a 2-run double that narrowed the deficit to only 9-8!
With Wang on second base, next batter Chien-Ming Chang drilled the ball into deep right-centerfield.
There, centerfielder Tyson Gillies ran backwards, caught the ball in the top of his glove, but ran into the fence.
At that moment, the ball popped out of his glove and was caught by covering rightfielder Rene Tosoni.
However, it was not clear whether the ball had been in touch with the fence or not and even the replays from several angles were not decisive.
Initially, it was ruled that the ball was in play.
With that, Chang would have hit a double and Wang would have scored the tying run.
The umpires then got together and after the discussion, it was ruled an out and with that, the inning ended.
In the bottom of the ninth, Taipei left a runner and thus lost 9-8.
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