Pinoy clouters split games with visiting Taiwanese

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine baseball team and the visiting Yen High team from Chinese Taipei split their two-game exhibition series which ended Monday at the Rizal Memorial Baseball Field. The Taiwanese sluggers, who are using the tune-up as part of their preparation for the Chinese Taipei AAA Cup, won their first meeting Friday, 6-1, before the nationals evened up the score with a 3-2 decision. Veteran Reuben Angeles singled home the winning run in the team’s final time at bat as the home team survived losing an early 2-0 lead after three completed innings. “We would like to thank the Yen High team for the opportunity they gave us. They are a young team but their players are well-exposed and it gave our players the chance to pit skills against world-class athletes," said Philippine Amateur Baseball Assocation president Hector Navasero. The Chinese Taipei team is a many-time national AAA champion and finished fifth in the 2008 World AAA Championship in Edmonton, Canada. The team boasted of two future Major League players, namely Hung Sen-chin and Chen-chi Bo. Bo is set to join the Cincinnati Reds farm team after his graduation in December while Hung is training with the Minnesota Twins. Both pitchers saw action with Hung pitching in the fourth inning and Bo in the eighth as they helped hold the host team scoreless for five innings after taking a 2-0 lead. W. Chiang-liao accounted for all the two runs of the visiting team that came in the sixth and eighth inning, enabling them to tie the score. The Taiwanese team had the opportunity to take the lead at the top of the ninth inning as reliever Charlie Labrador allowed a base on ball to S.H. Liu. But he made up for it by retiring M.C. Kan, D. Chen and Chiang Liao to retire the side. Lin Chin Hu was tapped by his team to pitch in the last inning and had a good start by retiring Junifer Pinero. Andro Cuyugan, however, had a hit to deep right for a standing double. Rances boarded base on a base on ball before Angeles stepped up at the batter’s plate and beat a two-ball, two-strike count with a long hit to right second that drove Cuyugan home for the winning play. PABA consultant Joe Hung, who made the visit of the Taiwanese team possible, expressed his heartfelt thanks on behalf of the visiting team. As a good gesture, Yen High offered PABA to send four young players to join them in their spring training for free. Aside from the national team, Yen High also played two-time Baseball Philippines runners-up Dumaguete Unibikers whom they also defeated, 4-1. –GMANews.TV