Korea defeated Chinese Taipei 3-2 in the last Pool B meeting of the tournament in the first round of the World Baseball Classic. However, though their effort was great late in the game, Chinese Taipei was the team that advanced to the second round of the WBC.
Chinese Taipei looked ready to complete the tournament in undefeated fashion having beaten Australia and the Netherlands in their first two games. Korea had other plans though. With a big eighth inning, they completed a come from behind victory led by Jungho Kang as he completed the rally with a two-run homer that placed Korea in the lead for good.
Chinese Taipei had possession of the lead in the third inning after Chih-Sheng Lin singled in Dai-Kang Yang. Chinese Taipei struck again in the top of the fourth as Yang singled in Yen-Wen Kuo to give his team a 2-0 advantage.
Korean bats were kept quiet until the eighth inning when they put up three runs to win the game.
The pitching overall was dominant. Chinese Taipei's Yao-Hsun Yang went 2.2 innings of just one hit baseball, he gave up two walks and wasn't efficient. Ching-Ming Wang came in for 2.1 innings and gave up three hits, one walk, but not runs. Closer Hung-Chih Kup, who's in the Seattle Mariners' organization, couldn't hold the lead and was charged with the three runs. For the Koreans, it went all backwards.
Starting pitcher Won Jun Chang gave up two runs on six hits in his 3.2 innings pitched. The next five pitchers combined for 5.1 innings of three hit baseball recording six strikeouts and two walks.
Along with Chinese Taipei, the Netherlands will advance to the second round. These two top teams of Pool B will join Cuba and Japan, who play against each other today in the final game of Pool A.
