(Story by Marco Stoovelaar)
   Team Europe fails to hold early lead against Koreans
Nederlands
 TAICHUNG (Taiwan) -
Team Europe played a good game against the KBO Team from South Korea on Sunday (December 13), but ended up on the wrong end of the score again, losing 8-6.
Nevertheless, despite having won only game so far, the team shows it can compete with the Asian opponents in the Asia Winter Baseball League.
Team Europe held a 5-1 lead in the middle of the second inning, but failed to hold onto it.
The KBO Team scored five runs in the third and fourth inning, then Team Europe came alongside in the fifth.
The Koreans then broke the 6-6 score in the sixth to take a decisive lead.
In the evening, the NPB Team (Japan) won 8-2 against the Taiwan Beer CPBL Team to take sole possession of first place in the league.
Yesterday (Saturday), Team Europe had the day off.
The NPB Team then won 14-9 against the Korean squad, which was the league-leader at that moment.
The game between the CPBL Team and the Chinese Taipei National Training Team ended in a 5-5 tie.
For the CPBL Team, this was its fourth tie, while it was the first for the Taipei-squad.
After the results of Saturday's games, the NPB Team then moved into a tie for first place with the Taipei-squad.
Team Europe plays its next game on Monday (December 14), starting at 6 PM local time (11 AM Dutch time).
The squad then meets the Chinese Taipei Training Team.
(December 13)
Team Europe had an energetic start and took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning off of starter Jae-Yong Cha.
For the lefthander, this was his eighth appearance in the season.
In the 7 2/3 inning he had pitched so far, Cha had given up only two basehits.
But in the opening at bat, he gave up four European basehits.
With a full count, lead-off hitter Urving Kemp lined a double down the leftfield-line, then advanced when next batter Sebastiano Poma singled on the first delivery he saw from Cha.
The next pitch ended in a wild pitch that enabled Kemp to score the first run.
Poma moved to second base, then advanced on a grounder by Federico Giordani and scored on a single by Alberto Mineo.
Maike Ehmcke followed with another basehit.
Hereafter, centerfielder Byun-Gok Bae made a nice running catch on a hit by Mattia Mercuri, then a grounder by Rashid Gerard ended the at bat, but the scoreboard showed a 2-0 lead for the European squad.
Lefthander Gianny Fracciolla started for Team Europe.
In the previous game of the Europeans, two days ago on Friday, the Italian pitched the final inning of the game against the CPBL Team.
Team Europe then scored twice in the top of the ninth inning to take a 4-3 lead, but in the bottom of the ninth, Fracciolla gave up a run with two outs, resulting in the game ending in a 4-4 tie.
In the bottom of the first inning, the Koreans got one run back off of Fracciolla.
With a 0-2 count, lead-off hitter Byun-Gok Bae drilled the next delivery into deep rightfield for a triple.
Fracciolla followed with a strikeout, but then gave up a runscoring single to Hyun Jung, one of the best hitters in the KBO Team with a .395 batting average.
By batting in Bae, he increased his RBI-total to 13.
A double play then ended the at bat.
Team Europe then staged a 3-run rally with two outs in the second inning.
With one out, Luca Martone walked, then scored on a 2-out double by Sebastiano Poma.
With that, Poma batted in his second run and lifted his RBI-total to nine.
The lefthanded hitter is the son of former Italian National Team-player Gianguido Poma, who played in nine seasons for Parma in the highest Italian baseball-league (Serie A) after having played four years for Bologna at the highest level.
Now his son also plays for Parma.
With Poma on second base, next batter Federico Giordani delivered a runscoring single to give Europe a 4-1 lead.
After next batter Alberto Mineo fouled off a pitch, the Korean coaching decided to switch catchers.
Asian teams regularly make defensive changes on key positions during an inning, especially when they trail.
However, the European hitting continued, as Mineo doubled to put runners on second and third base.
And the scoring also wasn't over yet, as Cha uncorked another wild pitch.
Giordani scored, Mineo moved to third base and Team Europe was leading 5-1!
When next batter Maik Ehmcke walked, it marked the end for Cha, who pitches in the farmteam of the professional Lotte Giants.
Members of farmteams, who also are sometimes listed on a roster for the big league-club, mostly wear high uniform numbers.
Cha's uniform number is 109.
The lefthander had given up seven basehits, including five by lefthanded hitters Poma (2), Mineo (2) and Ehmcke (1).
Jue-Un Song took over.
He also appeared in his eighth game of the season.
In his nine innings pitched, Song had given up 18 basehits.
Song hit Mattia Mercuri with his second pitch and that loaded the bases.
And of course, it created a force play and that's exactly what happened on a grounder by Rashid Gerard to end the inning.
But Team Europe now had an apparent comfortable 5-1 lead!
After the long top of the second inning, two quick at bats followed.
In the bottom of the second inning, Fracciolla retired the side to preserve the lead.
In the top of the third, Urving Kemp walked with two outs, but then was caught stealing.
And so, after Kemp had just finished his third at bat in the game, the batters in the numbers 8 and 9 position of the Korean batting order stepped up to the plate for the first time in this game in the bottom of the third inning.
But after having thrown two fine innings, Gianny Fracciolla ran into problems quickly in the third.
Sa-Hoon Kim, who had taken over the catching in the previous inning, led off with a single.
Hereafter, the bases got loaded when Sun-Gkon Lee walked and Byun-Gok Bae hit a single into short right-centerfield out of reach the the European defense.
A following walk for Bon-Ki Shin then accounted for an automatic run.
That led to a pitching change, as Manager Gilberto Gerali brought in Spanish righthander Javier Sanchez.
He began with a walk for Hyun Jung, which led to the next Korean run.
The KBO Team scored another run when Chi-Hong An followed with a sacrifice fly.
A following line drive then led to a double play, but the Koreans had narrowed the deficit to only 5-4.
After the Europeans were retired in order in the top of the fourth, the Koreans reached base again in their half of the fourth at bat and turned the game its way.
Kyun-Grok Lee led off with a walk, then, after a pop-out into centerfield, Sa-Hoon Kim singled to put on another baserunner.
A single by Sun-Gkon Lee followed to bring in the lead runner and so, it was a new game again, as the KBO Team had come alongside, 5-5.
And that led to another pitching change.
German righthander Lucas Dickman took over, but he saw Byun-Gok Bae hit a sacrifice fly that made it 6-5 in favor of the South Korean squad.
Despite giving up five runs in the last two at bats that turned its lead into a deficit, Team Europe came back again in the top of the fifth inning.
Maik Ehmcke led off with a walk, moved to third base on a single by Mattia Mercuri and scored on a single by Rashid Gerard, who batted in only his second run of the season, but made it a 6-6 score.
This time, a Korean pitching change followed, as Geon-Yeop Heo took over.
The righthander began with a strikeout, then Mercuri was caught stealing at third base.
At the moment of the sliding into the base and the tag, an unlucky collision followed, as third baseman Dae-In Hwang's left knee was between the spike of Mercuri and the base.
With that, Hwang sustained a knee injury and had to be stretched off the field.
A grounder ended the at bat, but the score was in balance again.
| Standings |
| # | Team | G | W | L | T |
| 1 | NPB Team | 13 | 7 | 4 | 2 |
| 2 | KBO Team | 12 | 5 | 3 | 4 |
| 3 | Chinese Taipei Training Team | 11 | 6 | 4 | 1 |
| 4 | Taiwan Beer CPBL Team | 12 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| 5 | Team Europe | 12 | 1 | 8 | 3 |
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Hyun Jung led off with a double for the KBO Team.
Hereafter, rightfielder Maik Ehmcke made a nice catch on a drive by next batter Chi-Hong An.
While Ehmcke threw the ball back to second base, Jung (who was off base when the ball was caught) had advanced, but the reactions of the European defense clearly state that he hadn't done it in the proper way.
Manager Gilberto Gerali immediately went to the Home Plate Umpire.
He got his three colleagues together and after they had a talk, Jung indeed was called out, as he hadn't re-touched the base after the ball had been caught before he took off for third base.
The Korean Manager then of course also wanted an explanation, but the ruling was upheld and so, a double play was recorded.
Hereafter, a flyout ended the at bat.
After Team Europe had left a runner on second base in the top of the sixth inning, the KBO Team took the lead moments later.
With one out, Dickman walked Dong-Hwi Im, who had become the new third baseman in the previous inning.
He moved on a wild pitch, then scored on a single by Sa-Hoon Kim, who was 3-for-3 after taking over as catcher during the second inning.
Besides collecting three hits, he also had scored twice and now batted in the go-ahead run (he was named MVP afterwards).
Now trailing 7-6, Diego Fabiani became the new pitcher for Team Europe.
The righthander retired the next two batters.
Team Europe stranded another runner in scoring position in the top of the seventh inning.
Team KBO then added another run in the bottom half off of new pitcher Maickel Rietel.
The Dutch righthander retired the first two batters he faced, but then gave up a homerun to Chi-Hong An, his first of the season.
Next battter Seung-Yeol Yoon then popped up the ball into short centerfield, where the European defense probably lost it in the sun.
The ball fell on the ground in the middle of four players and Yoon ended up with a double.
The next batter grounded out, but Rietel had now given up 18 basehits in the 10 2/3 inning he had pitched so far in five outings.
Robin Schel pitched the eighth inning for Team Europe.
After he had struckout the first batter, he changed the direction of a following comeback-grounder, but short stop Mattia Mercuri then fielded the ball barehanded and made a great play to retire the batter.
Hereafter, Schel gave up a single, then walked the next batter, but these runners were left behind.
In the last two European at bats, six batters were retired in order and so, the squad was left empty-handed after having a 5-1 lead in the second inning.
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