TAIPEI, Taiwan – In its first action in Taiwan and final tune-up before the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) U-18 Baseball World Cup, Team USA beat Chinese Taipei, 7-5, in exhibition action on Tuesday evening at Xinzhuang Baseball Stadium.
The U.S. offense got to work immediately in the bottom of the first. Coy James (Advance, N.C.) singled to lead off the frame before stealing second and advancing to third on a ground out. James then came home on an RBI ground out by PJ Morlando (Summerville, S.C.), the first of two Morlando RBIs on the day.
The one early run turned out to be all U.S. starter Levi Sterling (Los Angeles, Calif.) needed. The right hander was lights-out in his three innings of work, pitching efficiently to keep Chinese Taipei’s offense in check.
As Sterling mowed down the Taipei bats, the same three U.S. hitters were in the middle of a two-run third. James began the inning with another leadoff knock to right field and quickly came around to score a batter later when Konnor Griffin (Florence, Miss.) socked an RBI triple off the wall in left.
Griffin came home from third moments later on Morlando’s RBI single, his second run batted in of the evening to extend the U.S. lead to 3-0.
After Taipei capitalized on some wild pitching and errant U.S. defense to scratch two across in the top of the third, Team USA responded immediately with four more of its own in the bottom of the inning. Manny Marin (Miami, Fla.) singled to start the outburst, followed by a Derek Curiel (West Covina, Calif.) hit-by-pitch and a walk drawn by James. Griffin then came to the plate with the bases loaded and hit a hard grounder to the shortstop, resulting in an error and growing the lead to 5-2.
Then, after James scored one batter later on a wild pitch, Nolan Traeger (Spring, Texas) smoked a single right back up the middle to cap the four-run rally and give Team USA a 7-2 advantage.
Chinese Taipei added a trio of runs in the top of the fifth, taking advantage of a U.S. error as part of a rally that made the score 7-5. But Carter Johnson (Oxford, Ala.) entered a bases-loaded jam and coaxed a pop-up before getting into and out of another jam to keep Team USA in front by two.
Trey Gregory-Alford (Colorado Springs, Colo.) then took the hill and tossed a perfect seven-pitch seventh to secure the 7-5 win.
Team USA will now spend the next two days preparing to begin play at the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup. The U.S. opens tournament play on Friday at 10:30 a.m. local (Thursday at 10:30 p.m. ET) against the Netherlands. To keep up with the 18U National Team, follow @USABaseball18U on Twitter and @USABaseball on Instagram.
