Asia Winter League: Europe falls to Chinese Taipei 1-5

In the second game that the European delegation played at the Asia Winter League, team Chinese Taipei was too strong.

One of the highlights was the 2-6 double play that Italian catcher Alberto

Mineo made in the first inning. Another positive thing was that starting pitcher Maickel Rietel pitched three good frames before he was hit by fatigue. Because of this his pitches ended up in the zone and gave the Taiwanese the opportunity to score four runs. After his season ended in September, nothing much has been done. So that Rietel was hit by fatigue isn’t strange.

Team Europe scored the opening run in the fourth inning on a single by Chris Howard towards third base that drove in the sole run for Europe, but could not cling on to the lead. As stated above, Maickel Rietel was tabbed for four runs and he was replaced in the fourth inning by Leonel Cespedes (Templiers de Senart from France).

After Chinese Taipei scored another run in the fifth inning, Cespedes was replaced as well.

Team Europe wasn’t really outhit, but a couple of errors on their side gave team Chinese Taipei the chance to score a couple of runs. Europe collected five hits and Chinese Taipei eight. The Taiwanese were much more effective with runners on the bases.

First baseman Kevin Weijgertse was one of five that collected a hit (Mattia Mercuri, Frederico Giordani, Chris Howard and Luca Martone). Weijgertse went 1 for 4 bringing his batting average on a whopping .556.

Team Europe’s ranking in several categories after two games played:
ERA: 6.35 (ranked fifth)
WHIP: 1.76 (ranked fourth)
Batting average: .247 (ranked third)
OBP: .321 (ranked second)
Slugging percentage: .370 (ranked fourth)
Fielding percentage: .929 (ranked fifth)

Tomorrow team Europe will take on the delegation of the Japanese NPB.