THE NETHERLANDS – Taiwan foiled Cuba’s bid for a perfect run at the 2009 World Port Tournament with a 1-1 tie in the front end of a doubleheader on Thursday morning. However, the three-time defending tournament champion rallied for three late scores to win the second game, 5-4.

The Taiwanese went ahead with an ugly two-out rally in the the third to break a scoreless tie in a make-up game of Tuesday’s rained out contest. But Cuba pulled even in the sixth when Yoelvis Fiss drove in Leonys Martin with a two-out single to make the score 1-1.

FRIDAY, JULY 10
Japan vs. Taiwan
Netherlands vs. Cuba

Maikel Folch, whose throwing error allowed Chih-Hsiang Lin to cross the plate with Taiwan’s lone run, allowed a walk and four hits in seven strong innings. Vladimir García collected the final six outs to help Cuba remain unbeaten at 6-0-1.

Taiwan starter Wen-Yang Liao, who gave up three hits over four shutout frames, combined with two relievers to limit the potent Cuban bats to just six hits.

CUBANS EDGE TAIWAN IN TWINBILL FINALE

Cuba climbed out of a 4-2 hole with three late scores to beat Taiwan 5-4 Thursday in Rotterdam.

Taiwan grabbed a 1-0 lead in the fifth before the Cuba answered back the following inning with a bases-loaded walk and an RBI sacrifice fly by Fiss to go on top, 2-1, in a low-scoring duel. Then the game turned a little wacky.

Cuban starter Freddy Asiel, who coasted through the first seven innings, was sent packing in the eighth. Taiwan pulled even on a pair of singles and a hit-by-pitch which prompted Cuban skipper Roger Machado to replace Asiel with Miguel Lahera. But the situation for the mighty Big Red Machine went from bad to worse.

TOP HITTERS
.520 – Adonis García (Cuba)
.500 – Yoelvis Fiss (Cuba)
.450 – Bas de Jong (Netherlands)
.409 – Eriel Sánchez (Cuba)
.393 – Eugene Kingsale (Netherlands)
.375 – Bryan Englehardt (Netherlands)
.370 – Sydney de Jong (Netherlands)
.364 – Ariel Borrero (Cuba)
.294 – Yukinori Osonoi (Japan)

Lahera proceeded to move both runners into scoring position with a balk, and then surrendered a two-run hit to Chung-Chun Wu to give the Taiwanese their first lead of the game.

Cuba responded with a trio of runs an inning later. Eriel Sánchez doubled home a pair of runs to tie the game, and then scored the deciding run on Giorvis Duvergel’s game-winning hit.

DUTCH WINS THIRD STRAIGHT GAME

Sidney de Jong capped a two-run rally in the ninth with a game-winning RBI single and the Dutch National Team captured their third straight victory with a 4-3 comeback win against Japan on Thursday night.

Japan, which was outhit 11-5, took a 1-0 lead in the third off Dutch starter David Bergman, and tagged the Corendon Kinheim ace for two scores in the seventh on Ken Hinomoto’s two-run double to grab the lead again, 3-1. But the Dutch added three runs over the final two frames to steal the win.

STANDINGS

Photo courtesy of baseball.about.com

Tags: World Port Tournament