On a sunny afternoon (22 degrees Celsius), the Netherlands was retired in order in the top of the first inning by righthander pitcher Ching-Yu Chen.
Orange-starter Lisa Brink also retired the first two batters she faced, then gave up a single to Yu-Zhen Deng, but then strongly closed with a strikeout (her second in the at bat).
In the top of the second inning, the Netherlands also got its first baserunner.
The Taipei-defense made some nice plays on hits by Amy-Lynn Felix and Sietske Drijvers, the first two batters.
Felix drove the ball into deep leftfield, but there, Yung-Chi Chang made a nice catch in foul territory.
Drijvers hit a pop-fly, but that was nice caught by 2B Chiao-Chi Lai.
With two outs, Julia Kwakernaak walked, but she stranded on first base.
Chinese Taipei then opened the score in the bottom of the second inning.
Like in the opener against Peru, errors contributed to the scoring, resulting in three unearned runs.
Yu-Jan Chiu's lead-off grounder ended in an error, then a throwing error followed on a sacrifice bunt by next batter Chi-Yun Lin, which led to runners at the corners.
After Lin had stolen second base, both runners scored on a single by Hao-Fang Yeh, who herself ended up on second base on the throw to the plate.
That throw appeared to be in time to eliminate Lin, but the runner managed to touch the plate with her hand just before catcher Tenley Boersma tagged her.
Yeh then moved to third base on a wild pitch and scored on a sacrifice bunt (squeeze) by Yung-Chi Chang.
A grounder and a flyout (nice catch by centerfielder Sietske Drijvers on a line drive) ended the at bat, but the Orange Team trailed 3-0.
...Sietske Drijvers...
...homerun... |
With one out in the top of the third inning, the Netherlands also recorded its first basehit in the game, as Michelle Schuur reached on a bunt-hit down the first base-line.
However, pitcher Ching-Yu Chen then caught a line drive from next batter Sanne van der Putten, which ended in a double play.
Schuur dove back to first base, but ended up just short in a close play and American 1B Umpire Diana Welch followed with the out-signal, which ended the at bat.
After Chinese Taipei had stranded a runner on first base in the bottom of the third inning, the Netherlands came back in the top of the fourth inning.
With two outs, Amy-Lynn Felix again hit the ball into deep leftfield.
This time, the ball landed just in fair territory and the speedy Felix reached second base with a double.
She then scored when next batter Sietske Drijvers also drove the ball into deep leftfield for a 2-run homerun!
This were the first two runs Chinese Taipei gave up in this tournament after having recorded two shutout-victories.
Julia Kwakernaak then followed with a single, but she was left behind.
After the Netherlands had narrowed the deficit to only 3-2, Chinese Taipei immediately answered in the bottom of the fourth and took more distance.
Chi-Yun Lin led off with a single.
With one out, the bases got loaded when Yung-Chi Chang and Chiao-Chi Lai also singled.
Two runs were then scored when next batter Hsin-Yun Li also delivered a single.
With Taipei now leading 5-2, a pitching change followed.
Lauren Heijnsdijk took over, but she was greeted with a bunt-single (just inside the third base-line), which re-loaded the bases.
A sacrifice fly by Yu-Zhen Deng then enabled Lai to score the third run in the inning to lift the score to 6-2.
Heijnsdijk closed with a strikeout, but Taipei now led by four runs.
The Orange Team got a chance to do something back again in the top of the fifth.
But although the team had the bases loaded with twice with one out, only one run could be scored.
With one out, Michelle Schuur reached on an error and Sanne van der Putten walked.
With two runners on base, Chinese Taipei Head Coach Yu-Chun Tsai also went to the bullpen, as Yi-Shan Chu took over.
The righthander got the bases loaded, because she hit Tenley Boersma with her seventh pitch on a full count.
Moments later, Schuur scored, as Chu then walked Renske Tellekamp, which also kept the bases loaded.
Another pitching change followed, as Hsia-Ai Ke was inserted in the circle to face Amy-Lynn Felix and Sietske Drijvers, who were the most productive batters so far in this game.
However, a pop-fly by Felix ended in an infield-fly.
Felix then took over for Boersma at second base as temporary runner, but hereafter Drijvers flied out to centerfield.
After this big scoring opportunity for the Orange Team had resulted in only one run, Chinese Taipei added another run in its fifth at bat.
Yu-Jan Chiu led off with a walk, advanced on a grounder and scored on a 2-out pinch-hit single by Pei-Jyun Gao, which landed just out of reach of rightfielder Amy-Lynn Felix, who made a nice sliding attempt to catch the ball.
Yung-Chi Chang, for whom she had batted, then re-entered as pinch-runner on first base and she advanced to third base when next batter Chiao-Chi Lai also singled.
With runners on first and third base, Esmee Ames then became the third Dutch pitcher this afternoon and she got an inning-ending pop-fly.
...Sietske Drijvers, Julia Kwakernaak, Laura Schouten,...
...Else-Fieke de Boer and Michelle Schuur...
...during the playing of the National Anthem...
(© Photo: WBSC Game Media) |
The Netherlands then got the bases loaded again with one out in the top of the sixth and this time, more runs were scored.
Julia Kwakernaak led off with a walk, then Reganied Franka (who had entered the game in the bottom of the fifth) was hit by a pitch.
With one out, the bases got loaded when Michelle Schuur walked.
Two runs were scored when Sanne van der Putten followed with a single.
On the throw to the plate, two runners advanced and so, there were now runners on second and third base with only one out.
A long, 10-pitch, at bat then followed from Tenley Boersma, who popped out.
Next, with first base open, Renske Tellekamp was walked intentionally to set up a force play.
That was a more or less surprise choice, as Amy-Lynn Felix was the next batter and she already had drove the ball into deep leftfield twice.
But the three runners were left behind, as the inning ended when Felix also hit a pop-fly that was caught in foul territory.
However, the deficit had been narrowed to 7-5.
Chinese Taipei then decided the game with a 4-run rally in the bottom of the sixth.
Yi-Hsuan Chiu and Yu-Zhen Deng began with singles, then both scored on a double by Kuei-Ping Yeh.
With one out, Chi-Yun Lin homered to increase the lead to 11-5.
With two outs, Taipei got another baserunner when Yung-Chi Chang singled, but a mercy-rule loss was avoided, as Esmee Ames closed the inning with a strikeout.
In the top of the seventh inning, the Netherlands offense faced another Taipei-pitcher, Ching-Yu Chen, who had started the game, re-entered.
She took over from Hsia-Ai Ke, who earlier today had thrown a complete 7-inning game against Puerto Rico.
Again, the Orange Team got several baserunners.
Sietske Drijvers led off with a single on Chen's first pitch.
With one out, Reganied Franka was hit for the second time.
Hereafter, the team got the bases loaded again, as pinch-hitter Yarah Zuiver was also hit by a pitch.
The game then ended with a double play.
Pinch-hitter Sarah Evers hit the ball into foul territory in leftfield, where it was caught by short stop Yi-Hsuan Chiu.
After the ball was caught, Drijvers tried to score from third base, but she was eliminated at the plate on a throw from Chiu to catcher Chi-Yun Lin.
And that ended the game!
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Netherlands plays well, but ends up short against Chinese Taipei
LIMA (Peru) -
The Netherlands Under-18 Softball Team lost 11-5 against Chinese Taipei on Tuesday-afternoon (December 7), Day 2 of the inaugural WBSC Under-18 Women's Softball World Cup in Peru.
The Orange Team opened the event on Monday with a surprise 3-1 loss against host-country Peru.
For Chinese Taipei, this was its second game today.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Asian squad played against Puerto Rico and won 4-0.
This was the second shutout for the team from Taipei, as it opened the tournament on Monday with a convincing 9-0, mercy-rule win against Colombia.
All teams will play a double-header in the round-robin.
The Netherlands has its double-header scheduled for Friday.
Under-18 World Cup Softball Women 2021.