The Baseball Asian Championship saw the pitchers collapse early, with Chinese Taipei suffering a heavy 0-11 defeat to Japan, finishing as runners-up.

The championship final of the Asian Baseball Tournament was held on the night of the 28th, with Chinese Taipei facing Japan. Unexpectedly, Chinese Taipei’s initial pitchers Lin Sheng-en and Chen Lu-heng broke down early, conceding 4 and 3 runs respectively. The pitchers who followed also failed to stop Japan’s batting lineup. Japan won decisively 11-0, claiming their 20th championship, while Chinese Taipei ended as runners-up for the second straight time.

During the semifinal round, Chinese Taipei had lost 2-3 to Japan after a comeback. In this final rematch, Lin Sheng-en started for Chinese Taipei but was hit hard in the first inning by Keiji Amagai’s two-run double and Yukiya Yano’s RBI single. Chinese Taipei quickly brought in Chen Lu-heng to stop the damage, but he issued two consecutive walks, allowing Japan to score their fourth run.

Although Pan Junyu and Gao Yuwei hit consecutive singles in the bottom of the first inning, Chinese Taipei failed to score. In the top of the second, Japan scored their fifth run on a sacrifice fly, then loaded the bases, forcing Chinese Taipei to replace the pitcher with Gao Weiqiang. However, Shohei Mizutani delivered an RBI single, followed by Tomoya Furukawa’s sacrifice fly, adding two more runs and extending Japan’s lead to 7-0.

Japan launched another attack in the top of the fourth inning, with Tomoya Furukawa hitting a line drive single to left field that brought in the eighth run. In the top of the fifth, Chinese Taipei replaced the pitcher with Li Zhilin, who impressively retired all three batters in order for the team’s first perfect inning. In the top of the sixth, with two outs and runners on first and third, Li Zhilin threw a wild pitch that allowed another run to score, marking that every Chinese Taipei pitcher had given up runs in the game.

In the top of the seventh inning, Japan hit two consecutive singles, prompting Chinese Taipei to bring in Wang Yujie. Although he struck out the first two batters, Ryosuke Fuse hit a two-RBI single, pushing Japan’s lead to 11-0. In the bottom of the seventh, Japan brought in Yoshiki Fuchigami, who retired Chinese Taipei’s side on just seven pitches.

In the top of the eighth inning, Chinese Taipei switched to pitcher Yang Jie-en, who struck out two Japanese batters in a row. Despite allowing a hit, the inning ended when Japan failed on a steal attempt. In the top of the ninth, Chinese Taipei again changed pitchers to Wang Zhenghao. He allowed a runner on base due to an error by Kumada Ninyou but then induced three consecutive flyouts to end the inning.

In the bottom of the ninth, Chinese Taipei made their final offensive attempt. Japan brought in Soichiro Kayou as a reliever, who struck out Cai Zhiyu, Li Yiwei, and Wang Tengyu in succession to end the game with a clean inning.