Taipei takes title

Into everybody’s life a little rain must fall.

It’s a phrase the Australian national junior baseball team probably never wants to hear again after a two-hour rain delay derailed their chances to bring home World Junior Baseball Championship gold at Port Arthur Stadium.

Up 4-3 when the skies opened around 7:30 p.m. Sunday, when the teams returned to the fiel d at 9:30 p.m., it took less than five minutes for the game to shift away from the Australians and into the bats of their opponent.

Reliever Matthew Corbitt, brought in after the delay to spell Travis McDonald, and already facing a runner on, walked the first batter he faced and, after striking out Liao Chun Kai, looked to retire the side against the No. 7 hitter in the Chinese Taipei lineup.

No dice.

Lin Chia Ching, who drove in his team’s second run in the fourth, greeted him in not-so-friendly fashion, smashing a 1-2 offering over the wall in left, out of reach of the outstretched glove of Australian LF Andrew Campbell, who just 24 hours earlier robbed the Cubans of the game-winning homerun in similar fashion.

The blast shifted the momentum in Chinese-Taipei’s favour, the Australians never recovered and the Asian squad went on to claim an 8-4 victory, and more importantly its first WJBC title since 1983, long before any of the teens on this team were born.

“We achieved our final goal in this tournament,” said third baseman Lin Tzu Wei, named tournament MVP for an outstanding performance at the plate and in the field, one which saw him go 17-for-28 at the plate, a .607 clip, drive in 11, steal three bases, walk four times and hit four doubles, a triple and a homerun.

“I thought it was an impossible task. Originally we thought it was not possible but we were able to do it,” he added, speaking through interpreters and pointing to Cuba, the United States and South Korea as the teams he figured would walk away with the medals.

Ching, who hit the game-changing shot, could hardly believe they’d done it, though he eagerly took part in post-game celebrations that saw their coaches’ faces smothered in shaving cream and cries of jubilation, shouts and laughter emitted from a group of normally reserved teenagers – they bowed in reverence to the field before every game – who’d just conquered the world.

“I’m extremely happy. I’m very excited,” he said, through an interpreter.

Though there was still plenty of baseball to play, Ching said he knew they’d done it the moment he saw the ball he hit clear the wall.

“I knew we were going to win,” he said.

The Australians had to settle for silver, their best finish yet at a World Junior Baseball Championship. But while the medal took some of the sting away, the loss still hurt.

“It was a real tough loss,” said DH Josh Matavesi, whose three-run shot in the fourth broke open a 1-1 tie and had the crowd screaming the “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oy, oy, oy” chant in unison.

“We came into this game wanting the gold as much as they did and tonight we didn’t get it,” Matavesi said.

He added he’s not sure what effect the rain delay had on his teammates.

“I don’t know. We were all jumping around and had high energy. We kept the same energy as from the start, I thought, but I guess it just didn’t go our way in the end.”

Chinese-Taipei starter Chen Hung Yi was yanked after the fourth, replaced by Want Wei Chung, who all but shut down the Australian offense after that. Chung retired the side in order in the fifth before the storm hit, then stayed in the game when the weather cleared and did it again in the sixth. The only real threat he faced was in the eighth when Campbell reached third, but a soft liner to second by Ryan Battaglia took care of the threat.

Australian starter Josh Warner didn’t last through the fourth, pulled after giving up five hits and a walk.

Chinese Taipei added two in the sixth. With Lin Tzu Wei on second with a double, Ko Chih Wei struck out, but Battaglia couldn’t hang on to it and had a routine throw to first to retire the batter. Instead the ball took off and would up deep in right-field. The runner scored and the batter wound up on third, soon to come home on a Yang Hong Shen sacrifice fly.

World views: In addition to his MVP award, Lin Tzu Wei was also named the outstanding defensive player and given awards for scoring the most runs and having the highest battign average. Cuba’s Omar Luis, who twice tossed more than 140 pitches, had the best record at 2-0. John Simm, who didn’t allow an earned run in 13 innings, had the best ERA, while Shen had the most RBI with 12. Battaglia had three home runs, tops in the tournament, while the Czech Republic’s Petr Sila led all players with four stolen bases ...Two Canadians were named to the WJBC all-star team, DH Philip Diedrick and OF Alexander Calbick. Also named were Korea’s Yoo Chang Sik (relief pitcher), Battaglia (catcher), Cuba’s Luis (SP) Guillermo Aviles (1B) and Gelkis Jimenez (OF), Taipei’s Shen (2B) and Lin Tzu Wei (3B), and the United States’ Francisco Lindor (SS) and Michael Lorenzen (OF).