World Baseball Classic: Chinese Taipei 11, Italy 7
Coming off their 6-3 upset of Cuba Thursday, Team Italy hoped to grab an inside track to one of the advancing spots out of Group A at Taichung on Friday. It was not to be as the host team scored the game’s final six runs to erase an early Italy lead.
The outcome turned subtlely but decisively when Chinese Taipei strung together three straight seventh inning singles to break a 7-7 tie. After Chieh-Hsien Chen drew a one-out walk, Chin Cheng grounded a single up the middle, Kun-Yu Chiang drove a line single to left, and pinch hitter Kuo-Chen Fan produced an infield grounder too weakly hit for Italy shortstop David Fletcher to make a play on.
Having seized the momentum in such a delicate fashion, the hosts added three more authoritative runs in the eighth when Kungkuan Giljegilaw homered with two runners on base.
The Taipei offense generated 16 hits against five Italy pitchers against just two strikeouts. Team Italy’s offense did produce 11 hits, but that was offset by nine strikeouts.
Team Italy catcher Brett Sullivan, a San Diego Padres farmhand, had three hits and scored all three times he reached base.
But Italy’s two best-known major leaguers, Fletcher and Royals first baseman Vinnie Pasquantino, combined for just two hits in 10 at-bats. Neither touched home plate or drove in a run.