It was not just left-handed ace Lin Yu-min (21). Taiwan beat the Dominican Republic 2-1 by banking on side-arm pitcher Huang Zifeng (30) to garner its second consecutive win.메이저사이트

Taiwan had a 2-1 victory over the Dominican Republic in the second Group B match of the 2024 WBSC Premier 12 held at Taipei Dome in Taipei, Taiwan on Sunday. Taiwan defeated Korea 6-3 in the first match on Sunday, and maintained its lead in Group B with two consecutive wins.

On this day, Taiwan started the starting lineup of Chen Chen Chen-wei (left wing), Lin Li (right wing), Chen Jie-shuen (center fielder), Zheng Song-eon (designated hitter), Zhu Yu-sen (first baseman), Pan Zekai (third baseman), Lin Jia-jeong (capture), Li Kei-wei (second baseman), and Zhang Kun-yu (striker).

The two teams engaged in a tight race between pitchers. At the top of the third inning, Jean Kunwy hit a breaking ball of the course high near the body of starting pitcher Pedro Fernandez of the Dominican Republic, to take the lead with a solo shot over the left fence. However, the Taiwanese batter couldn't run anymore due to Fernandez's good pitching of four hits (one homer), one walk, six strikeouts, and one run during six innings.

The hero of Taiwan on the day was starting pitcher Huang Zifeng. The Dominican Republic's batting lineup, which won the game 6-1 against Cuba on Sunday, was completely blocked by Huang Zifeng's good pitching, and failed to score a single hit until the sixth inning. The only on-base hit was a walk Kevin Gutierrez got in the bottom of the first inning.

Taiwan's mound was sold out even after Huang Zifeng went down. Lin Kai-wei, who took over the mound in the bottom of the seventh inning, gave up his first hit to Andretti Cordero after striking out two consecutive batters, breaking his team's no-hitter streak, but he cleared the inning without losing a point. Taiwan's batters ran away one more point with Lin Li's sacrifice fly in the top of the eighth inning with one out and a wild pitch.

Taiwan, which is set to win, faced a crisis in the last inning of the ninth inning. Wu Chunwei, who took the mound to wrap up the game, had two consecutive hits, causing crisis of first and second bases with no outs. The Dominican Republic created chances with its sacrifice bunt, with one out and runners on the second and third bases. Wu Chunwei induced a ground ball to the shortstop to post his second out count, and during that time, the third runner homered, making the score 2-1. In the ensuing crisis with two outs and third base, Wu struck out Arismendi Alcantara with a high fastball, securing a one-run victory.

According to the WBSC website, Huang Zifeng said after the game, "I knew it was a no-hitter, but I tried to focus on communication with the catcher. Since it is an international competition, the result of the entire team is much more important than the individual record."

"He (Hwang) pitched very well," Dominican Republic coach Cesar Martin said, "He (Hwang) pitched very well," but added, "I'm proud of our team. Even though we were trailing in the second half of the game, we were still aggressive at bat and were able to create chances to score."

Meanwhile, in Group B, while Taiwan, which has won two consecutive games, is in first place, Japan, which beat Australia, is second, South Korea, which beat Cuba, and the Dominican Republic (1-1), which lost to Taiwan, are tied for third, Australia (1 loss) is fifth, and Cuba (2 losses), which has lost two consecutive games, is sixth.