Chinese Taipei earn first win, too late for a Super Round run

World No. 3 Chinese Taipei needed only five innings to outscore No. 31 South Africa 11-0 on Monday and earn their first win in the WBSC U-23 Baseball World Cup 2023. It will not be enough to advance to the Super Round.

Shortstop Chun-Wei Liu homered off Kyle Schwartz on the game's first pitch. Chinese Taipei added two more runs. Chia-Wei Lin reached on a one-out triple and scored on Nian-Hao Wang's double. Yu-Ching Tseng made it 3-0 with a two-RBI single.

Chinese Taipei broke the score open against Jamie Brookes in the top of the third. The reliever allowed four consecutive two-out walks to give Chinese Taipei the fourth run of the night. Hsin Chu followed with a three-RBI triple to dead centre to make it a 7-0 game.

Tyron Brickhill took the mound for South Africa in the top of the fourth, and Chinese Taipei added four runs. Brickhill faced eight batters, allowing two hits, four walks and a wild pitch.

Chinese Taipei starter Jun-Wei Zhang left after three perfect innings.

South Africa reached base for the first time in the bottom of the fifth against reliever Li-Chen Wu.

Chinese Taipei (1-3) will play No. 5 Venezuela (3-1) to end the Opening Round and will play in the Placement Round together with South Africa (0-4), who will finish against No. 7 Netherlands.