Taiwan lose to Australia in APBC bronze game

Taiwan yesterday lost to Australia 6-4 in the bronze medal game of the Asia Professional Baseball Championship (APBC), finishing last in the four-team tournament held at Tokyo Dome in Japan.

Taiwan took an early 1-0 lead thanks to Lin Hung-hsien’s RBI groundout in the bottom of the second inning. Starting pitcher Chiu Chun-wei also kept Australia scoreless through 3.2 innings.

However, Taiwanese reliever Kao Wei-chiang gave up two walks in the top of the fifth inning.

Taiwan’s Zeng Sheng-an reacts during their Asia Professional Baseball Championship game against Australia in Tokyo yesterday.

Photo: AP

His replacement, Lee Chun, promptly walked another Australian batter to load the bases before giving up an RBI single to Brent Iredale and hitting Chris Burke with a pitch, allowing Australia to take a 2-1 lead.

Lee Chun was then replaced by Lee Chao, but the latter was still unable to stop the Australian offense. Lee Chao gave up two consecutive doubles, allowing Australia to score four more runs in the same inning to widen the gap to 6-1.

Taiwan managed to narrow the gap with Liu Chun-wei’s bases-loaded double in the bottom of the fifth inning, cutting Australia’s lead to 6-4.

Taiwan had a chance to regain the lead in the bottom of the seventh inning, but failed to score despite loading the bases with only one out.

The fourth-place finish marked Taiwan’s worst performance in the APBC since Australia joined the tournament in 2023.

The World Baseball Softball Confederation-sanctioned APBC, launched in 2017, initially featured teams of professional players from Taiwan, Japan and South Korea.

The APBC generally limits roster eligibility to players aged 24 or younger or those with three years or less of professional experience. To help balance team strength, each participating nation may also select up to three overage players.

Australia joined the tournament in its second edition in 2023, finishing fourth in the four-team competition that year.