Olympic Preliminaries, Wednesday Aug. 13

Chinese Taipei 5, Netherlands 0
Chinese Taipei won their first game of the tournament behind seven shutout innings from Wei-Yin Chen, who allowed only three hits while striking out seven. Two sac flies and three RBI singles accounted for all the scoring. Taipei right fielder Chien-Ming Chang went 2-for-3 with two RBI. Dutch starter David Bergman took the loss. Things don’t get easier for the Netherlands as they play the United States tomorrow. Chinese Taipei takes on their eastern rivals, Japan. Boxscore.


Canada 10, China 0
A prodigious, three-run blast by Scott Thorman and a nine-strikeout, no-walk performance by starting pitcher Chris Begg handed China the loss in the host nation’s inaugural Olympic appearance. In the bottom of the first, Fenglian Hou notched the first Chinese hit in Olympic Games history with a single up the middle. Thorman finished the game with a homer, three RBI and two runs, while Canadian right fielder Michael Saunders added a solo shot in the eighth. Tomorrow, Canada plays Cuba while China goes up against Korea. Boxscore.


Korea 9, United States 8
Korea pulled out a dramatic victory with two runs in the bottom of the ninth after the US had taken the lead in the top-half of the inning with three runs of their own. With the US down by two, third baseman Mike Hessman led off the ninth inning with a solo homerun. Terry Teargarden singled and advanced to third on Brian Barden’s double; both men later scored on an RBI single by first baseman Matt Brown. But Korea wasn’t finished. With Jeff Stevens on the hill for the red, white and blue, Jeung Keunwoo doubled and scored two batters later on a fielder’s choice to tie the game. With Lee Taekkeun on first, an errant pickoff attempt advanced him to third, and Lee scored the winning run on a sac fly by Lee Jongwook. Both teams get to relax a little tomorrow as the US takes on the Netherlands and Korea plays China. Boxscore.


Cuba 4, Japan 2
In the most anticipated matchup of the day, two Olympic powerhouses did not disappoint. Cuba got to Japanese starter Yu Darvish (0-1) early, chasing him from the game in the fourth. Cuban rightfielder Alexei Belle was 2-for-2 with a double, a triple, and two runs scored, while DH Alfredo Despaigne went 3-for-4 with three RBI. Shortstop Munenori Kawasaki went 3-for-3 and scored both Japanese runs. Norge Luis Vera went six innings for Cuba, giving up two runs on seven hits while striking out two. Darvish took the loss for Japan, who gets another tough matchup in Chinese Taipei tomorrow. Cuba plays Canada. Boxscore.