Game 7: Game Summary(Box Score)

Team   1 2 3  4 5 6  7 8 9  R  H  E LOB
Canada 0 0 2  1 0 2  0 1 0   6  9  2  7
Cuba   0 3 0  0 0 4  0 0 X   7  5  2  5

From Bob Duff of Canwest News Service:

As Yogi Berra might say, it was deja vu all over again for Canada’s Olympic baseball team.

Here they were, late in the game, holding a two-run advantage over Cuba, positioned to deliver the upset.

Then the Cubans upset those plans.

Two-run homers by Alexander Malleta and Alfredo Despaigne in the sixth inning erased a 5-3 Canadian lead, powering Cuba (2-0) to a 7-6 victory over Canada (1-1) on the second day of the Olympic tournament.

So close, but once again, no Cuban cigar.

“We know when we come out here, we’re in a game,” said Canadian second baseman Stubby Clapp of Windsor, Ont. “You can’t let up on them. They always come back.”
Usually, to haunt the Canadians.

“This is the type of game of we play every time,” Clapp said. “We’re just one hit away, one swing away from winning the game.”

The outcome was starkly familiar to the semifinal of the Olympic baseball tournament four years ago in Athens. In that game, Canada carried a 3-2 lead into the eighth inning before the Cubans exploded for six runs, then held on for an 8-5 triumph.

Emotionally devastated, Canada performed dismally in an 11-2 loss to Japan in the bronze-medal game.

While disappointing, at this stage of the tournament, this setback shouldn’t set Canada back in similar fashion.

“It’s better to lose a game like this early in the tournament than later on when you can’t do anything about it,” said Canadian manager Terry Puhl, a native of Melville, Sask.

“That’s the best part,” added Clapp. “We got it over now.

“It’s our turn next.”

Two games into the tournament, the Canadians have displayed plenty of power. Outfielder Mike Saunders of Victoria has homered in both games, while outfielder Nick Weglarz of Stephensville, Ont., clouted two homers against the Cubans.

After Cuba grabbed a 3-0 lead in the second inning, Weglarz completed a Canadian rally, tying the score at 3-3 when he hit a solo shot to lead off the fourth inning, a long homer that banked off one of the flagpoles in centre field. His two-run bomb in the sixth gave Canada a 5-3 advantage.

“On the first one, I was looking for my pitch and I got it,” Weglarz said. “The one I hit to right field, I was just trying to get the runner over.

“We’ve got a lot of power on this team. We’re a good hitting team.”

While they’ve displayed a propensity for the long ball, the Canadians’ ability to come up with the timely hit spelled their demise against the Cubans, stranding five runners in scoring position.

“That’s baseball,” Weglarz said. “You can’t always execute.”

The Cuban game was the beginning of a gauntlet of baseball powers for Canada in this tournament. The Canadians play South Korea (1-0) on Friday. The Korean game against China on Thursday morning was halted by rain and will be resumed Sunday.

Following that, it’s showdown with the United States (1-1) on Saturday, then after an off day, a showdown with Japan (1-1) on Monday.

The top four teams in the eight-team tournament through round-robin play advance to the medal round.

“Yes, this is one we let get away,” Puhl said of the loss to the Cubans. “But if we continue to play with this kind of intensity, we’re going to be in the medal round.”

Game 8: Game Summary(Box Score)

Team            1 2 3  4 5 6  7 8 9   R  H  E LOB
Japan           0 0 0  0 1 1  0 0 4   6  9  1  8
Chinese Taipei  0 0 0  1 0 0  0 0 0   1  4  0  3

From China post:

Taiwan’s baseball team was defeated by Japan 1-5 in a long 9-inning battle at the Beijing Olympic Games.

The Taiwanese team was rated an underdog versus the strong Japanese team for the evening game, but the players managed to take an early 1-0 lead over Japan at the end of the 4th inning while pitcher Hsu Wen-hsiung successfully held the Japanese scoreless.

Hsu was relieved by left-hand pitcher Ni Fu-teh at the end of the 5th inning after a solo homerun by the Japanese catcher to tie the game 1-1.

After a Japanese player reached 2nd base, Ni was replaced by the third pitcher Chang Chih-chia.

Chang struck out a Japanese batter, but was unable to stem the next hitter who allowed Japan to take the lead 2-1 in the 6th inning.

Both teams were unable to score in the 7th inning. However, the Japanese team widened its lead to 6-1 to wrap up the intense competition.

This was the first defeat for the Chinese Taipei team after they blanked the Netherlands in a 5-0 victory Wednesday that also saw Cuba beat Japan 4-2.

The Taiwanese players are scheduled to take on the Chinese baseball team at 10:00 a.m. in Beijing today.

Bookmark to:

Baseball player Chang Tai-shan had returned a positive drug test in a World Anti-Doping Agency operation, the International Olympic Committee confirmed.

“The International Baseball Federation has confirmed the test. It was done outside the Olympic period (starting on July 27),” IOC spokeswoman Giselle Davies said.

The news will be devastating for the millions of Taiwanese fans who follow their team’s fortunes intimately.

It’s also bad news for China, which in recent months since the change of government in Taiwan has enjoyed a detente of sorts with its old enemy.

Taiwan Baseball Association secretary-general Lin Tsung-cheng said Chang, the third baseman in the team, had not played a part in its opening game against The Netherlands yesterday after the IOC had informed the association of the test results.

Lin, who did not name the drug involved, said a further test will be carried out and if it is positive, Chang will be banned from the rest of the Olympic baseball tournament.

The island’s baseball association has applied to WADA to have Chang take another urine test.

There is speculation that the baseballer may have taken a Chinese cold medication that contains a banned substance, an official from the Taiwanese Olympic Committee said.

Players were advised to avoid these medications during the Games. “The medications are not illegal, but they’re banned for Olympics athletes,” the official said.

“I’m not clear on what happened. I’m not a doctor.”

Baseball is Taiwan’s most popular sport, and Taiwan fans have come to Beijing to cheer on their team, which clinched a spot in the Games in March.

Tawain once hope any good news depends on the second sample, however, the result of B sample is positive too, Chang can not play in Beijing 2008, and probably more than three years at International Baseball, pending a hearing on August 17.

A Taiwan Olympics baseball player has failed a doping test, the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) confirmed Thursday, following the result of a second test sample.

The IBAF notified the Chinese-Taipei delegation at the Beijing Olympics that the B sample of Chang Tai-shan’s urine had tested positive.

The federation had on Wednesday suspended Chang, pending the result of the B sample taken during a test in Taipei on July 7.

A key hitter, Chang denied using banned substances, but said medication intended to improve his fertility or pills he took to cure a cold might be to blame.

The IBAF has scheduled a hearing for August 17 to decide on the length of Chang’s ban, according to the Chinese-Taipei Olympic Committee.

The IBAF, in conjunction with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), collected urine samples from the eight baseball teams that qualified for the Beijing Olympics.

On August 12, IBAF announced that the A sample of Chang’s urine had tested positive.

If the hearing fails to reverse IBAF’s decision, Chang is likely to be banned for three years, and will be the first Taiwan player to have failed a doping test.

Chang’s absence will hurt Taiwan’s chance of winning a medal in the Olympics baseball competition, which began on Wednesday with Taiwan beating the Netherlands 5-0.

Taiwan faced Japan Thursday evening, and has to take on each of the other six teams before learning whether it will advance to the semi-final.

Bookmark to:

Game 1: Game Summary(Box Score)
Team           1 2 3  4 5 6  7 8 9  R  H  E LOB
Netherlands    0 0 0  0 0 0  0 0 0  0  4  1  3
Chinese Taipei 0 1 0  3 0 1  0 0 X  5  7  0  7

From Taipei Times:

Pitching like the staff ace that he has become, Chen Wei-yin struck out seven over seven shutout innings to lead Taiwan past the Netherlands in a convincing 5-0 win in Game One of the Beijing Olympic baseball tournament at the Wukesong Baseball Field in Beijing yesterday.

The Kaohsiung County native, who enjoyed an outstanding amateur career at various levels of competition prior to being selected by the Chunichi Dragons of Japan’s professional league in 2004, was simply magnificent in holding a potent Dutch lineup to three scattered singles over seven scoreless frames.

Fellow reliever Cheng Kai-wen finished off with a near-perfect eighth and ninth to keep the shutout victory intact for Taiwan.

“I couldn’t be happier with my performance today,” an excited Chen said after the game. “The velocity, control and breaking ball were all working as well as they can.”

Doing the damage at the plate with his bat was speedy outfielder Chang Jien-ming who went a team-best two-for-three with a pair of RBIs to keep his team on the wining track.

A patient Lin Chih-sheng showed exceptional discipline at the batter’s box with three drawn walks to jumpstart two of Taiwan’s three scoring rallies.

The contest began with Taiwan wasting little time getting to Dutch starter David Bergman in the bottom of the second with Lin drawing a walk, advancing to third on a double by Jiang Chih-hsien before scoring on Luo Guo-hui’s sacrifice-fly to claim a quick 1-0 lead.

After a scoreless third, Taiwan moved on again with Lin drawing a leadoff walk off Bergman and Luo following in his footsteps one out later to place runners on first and second to set up Yeh Jung-chang’s RBI-single that made it 2-0.

That was not all the runs that Taiwan would score in the fourth as Lin Tseh-hsuan also came through with a bases-loaded single for Taiwan’s third run of the game.

Chang then brought in the fourth run with another sacrifice-fly to give his team a comfortable 4-0 advantage at the end of the fourth.

Doubles by Shih Chih-wei and Chang in the bottom of the sixth scored the fifth and final run of the game for Taiwan which was more than ample for the win as the Dutch made it to second base only twice let alone scoring a run in the lopsided win.

Game 2: Game Summary(Box Score)
Team    1 2 3  4 5 6  7 8 9   R  H  E  LOB
Canada  0 0 0  3 2 0  1 4    10 10  0   6
China   0 0 0  0 0 0  0 0     0  8  2   7

From CBC Sports:

China was shown no mercy — well, one inning’s worth — by Team Canada in its historic first foray into Olympic baseball.

Chris Begg and two relievers combined on an eight-hitter as Team Canada crushed China 10-0 in eight innings in the preliminary round of men’s baseball at the Summer Games in Beijing on Wednesday.

Begg, a right-hander from Uxbridge, Ont., scattered six hits over 6 2/3 innings and struck out nine batters, including the side in the bottom of the fifth.

“The strikeouts, generally that is not my game,” he said. “I tend to try to place my pitches and get them to put the ball in play.”

“He is one of our best pitchers, in terms of knowing how to pitch,” Canadian manager Terry Puhl said. “If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be here.

“He has had some shoulder injuries. But the man knows how to pitch.”

Ottawa’s Tim Burton and Rheal Cormier, a former major leaguer from Moncton, N.B., mopped up in relief before the mercy rule went into effect.

“I’m going to be going to him a lot,” Puhl said of Cormier.

Scott Thorman of Cambridge, Ont., homered and drove in three runs, Adam Stern of London, Ont., had two runs batted in, and Victoria’s Michael Saunders capped the scoring with a solo home run.

Winnipeg’s Stubby Clapp, Nick Weglarz of Stevensville, Ont., and Jimmy Van Ostrand of Richmond, B.C., had the other RBIs.

“We have good hitters,” Puhl said. “If they continue to have quality at-bats, we’re going to score some runs.”

Chinese starter Bu Tao was tagged with the loss, permitting seven runs — two unearned — on five hits in 4 1/3 innings.

Bu equalled Begg pitch for pitch through three scoreless innings before finally flinching in top of the fourth inning, yielding singles to Clapp and Saunders to put runners aboard for Thorman, Canada’s hulking clean-up hitter.

Thorman launched a towering home run over the wall in right field to make it 3-0.

“For three innings, it was nail-biting time,” he said. “We had one hit through three innings.

“In a situation like this, the first runs mean so much and we were fortunate to get rolling. Until that point, we were taking nothing for granted and nothing lightly.”

Canada scored twice off reliever Liu Kai in the fifth inning, the first run crossing the plate on a wild pitch and the second on Weglarz’s bases-loaded walk.

Canada went ahead 6-0 in the seventh inning, and piled up four more runs in the eighth.

Chris Robinson was hit by a pitch, took second base on an errant pickoff attempt, and Garcia walked to bring up Stern, who delivered both runners with a soft triple that bounced beyond the reach of centre-fielder Sun Lingfeng.

Clapp later cashed Stern with a sacrifice fly and Saunders ripped a solo homer to right off reliever Li Weiliang to complete the scoring.

“Today was not a good day for us,” Chinese manager Jim Lefebvre said. “We’re a much better team than we showed.”

Canada, which went 6-1 in Olympic qualifying, is determined to improve on its fourth-place finish at the 2004 Athens Games, when it lost 11-2 to Japan in the bronze-medal game.

The five players retained from that squad — Begg, Clapp, Mike Johnson, Ryan Radmanovich and Stern — know the supreme test will be Thursday’s preliminary game showdown with three-time defending champion Cuba (5:49 a.m. ET, CBC Sports.ca).

As much as China was excited by the prospect of competing in baseball for the first time at Beijing, the sport won’t be retained at the 2012 London Olympics.

Bookmark to:

“The goal coming in was to qualify for the Olympics,” said Canadian starter Brooks McNiven of Vancouver, “and open everybody else’s eyes that we’re not just cruising into this but that we’re here to win.”

2004 Olympic silver medal winner Australia miss even with a win over South Africa.

“It was tough going out there today and that could certainly be classed as one of the ugliest wins of all time, but there were a few things there really worth noting,” manager Jon Deeble said. “We could very well look back at that game for producing things like James Linger’s first hit for Australia and Brad Tippett’s first win, two things youre likely to see a lot more of for many years to come.”

2008 IBAF Final Olympic Qualifying Tournament Final Recap is here.

WP: Alvarez Ramirez (1-1) LP: Gutierrez Gutierrez (0-1)

RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: Tippet (1-0) LP: Townend (0-1) HR: Luke Hughes

RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: Kim, K. H. (2-0) LP: Lee C.-C. (0-1)

RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: Green (2-0) LP: Fries (1-1)

RECAP BOX SCORE

Bookmark to:

The three team will joined the United States, host China, Cuba, Japan and the Netherlands at the Beijing Games 2008 Olympics.

Official Recap is here.

WP: Mowday (1-0) LP: Hernandez Diaz (0-2) HR: Ben Risinger (2inning, 3 runs)

RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: Ortega Salinas (1-1) LP: Marquez Ramirez (1-1) HR: Carlos Valencia (9inning, 1 run)

RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: Richmond, S. (2-0) LP: Ryu (0-1) HR: Mattew Rogelstad (2, 1inning, runs), Nicholas Weglarz (3, 4 inning, 1 run)

RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: Chiang (2-1) LP: Armitage (0-2) HR: Chih-Hsien Chiang (7 inning, 1 run)

RECAP BOX SCORE

Bookmark to:

Taiwan shuts out Australia in crucial games, clears way to Olympic Games, a win against South Africa will assure Taiwan of a spot in the Olympics.

For Australia, life is not so good, especially after they lost to Chinese Taipei. They need to beat Spain and South Africa and rely on Canada dropping their final games against Korea and minnows Germany. NATIONAL coach Jon Deeble has slammed the international baseball federation and accused rival countries of conspiring to ensure reigning Olympic silver medallists Australia didn’t qualify for Beijing.

WP: Son, M. H. (2-0) LP: Henkenjohann (0-2) HR: Donald Lutz (2 inning, 1 run)
RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: Periard (2-0) LP: Leal (0-1) HR: Nicholas Weglarz (2, 3 inning, 1 run)
RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: Campos Machado (1-0) LP: Mostert (0-1) HR: Karim Garcia 2 (1, 4inning 2runs, 2, 8inning 2 runs)
RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: Yang (2-0) LP: Mildren (1-1)
RECAP BOX SCORE

Bookmark to:

Of course, host Taiwan keen to secure Beijing baseball berth.

“Baseball is the sport we pay most attention to,” an official with the Chinese Taipei Olympic Committee told reporters. “It’s best if we can get in, otherwise we won’t care about the Olympics as much.” “Baseball is so important that if we’re not in the Olympics, people will be very disappointed,” said Richard Lin, secretary general of the island’s Amateur Baseball Association. “It’s our national sport and this chance at the Olympics is hard to get.”

Official Recap is here.

WP: Fries (1-0) LP: Terry (0-1)
RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: S. W. Kim (1-0) LP: Olivera Cavero (0-1) HR: Seung Yuop Lee (2, 8 inning, 2 runs)
RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: Green (1-0) LP: Chiang (1-1) HR: Nicholas Weglarz (6 inning, 1 run), KUO-HUI LO (2, 6inning, 3 runs)
RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: Silva Sandoval (1-0) LP: Bright (0-1)
RECAP BOX SCORE

Bookmark to:

The official recap is here.

WP: Chang (1-0) LP: Hughes (0-1)
RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: Kent (1-0) LP: McNiven (0-1) HR: James Van Ostrand (2 inning, 1
run), Mattew Rogelstad (7 inning, 2 runs), Ryan Radmanovich (8 inning, 2runs)
RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: Leal Gonzalez (1-0) LP: Armitage (0-1)
RECAP BOX SCORE

WP: K. H. Kim (1-0) LP: Silva Escalante (0-1) HR: Miguel Ojeda (5 inning, 1 run)
RECAP BOX SCORE

Bookmark to:

UNDER the direction of Rey Vicente Anglada, Cuba is to present a team made up of 24 baseball players, of whom 21 participated in the 1st World Baseball Classic, with the sole objective of winning one of the two slots for the 08 Beijing Olympics awarded by the 3rd Pre-Olympic Baseball tournament, scheduled to open today at 8:00 p.m. in Havana’s Latin America stadium.

The selection, announced yesterday, is:
Catchers: Ariel Pestano, Eriel Sánchez and Roger Machado;

Infield: Alexander Mayeta, Ariel Borrero, Yulieski Gouriel, Eduardo Paret, Michel Enríquez, and Rudy Reyes;

Outfielders: Frederich Cepeda, Osmani Urrutia, Alexei Ramírez, Giorvis Duvergel and Carlos Tabares;

Pitchers: Pedro Luis Lazo, Yunieski Maya, Yadier Pedroso, Yulieski González, Adiel Palma, Jonder Martínez, Frank Montieth, Vicyohandri Odelín, Deinys Suárez and Norberto González.

The team was presented with the flag yesterday at the base of the José Martí Monument, in a ceremony presided over by José Ramón Fernández, president of the Cuban Olympic Committee, and Cristian Jiménez, head of INDER.

Bookmark to: