2007 Baseball World Cup Day 1: Taichung starts prior to Taipei

November 8, 2007

The opening ceremonies for the 2007 Baseball World Cup (2007 BWC) were held Tuesday. Torrential rain, however, made Panama vs Spain the opening match of the 2007 BWC in Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium. The original opening match of Chinese Taipei vs Italy was postponed until next week and will be played at Tianmu Baseball Stadium.

"Recently, we got into a sticky situation while constructing a dome due to some protests by non-governmental people, but we'll try to overcome these difficulties in order to present high-level sports to the international market." Chin-chi Wu, the Director of the Taipei City Bureau of Education, remarked at Tuesday's opening ceremony.

Spain vs Panama
The opening match of the 2007 BWC was played in Taichung after a bad weather Wednesday at Tianmu, Taipei City. The Spanish team became contenders after winning 3rd place at the 2007 European Baseball Tournament. Several of their players hail from Venezuela.

With a single and one RBI by Angel Chavez, and the first HR of 2007 BWC yielding 3 RBIs by Joel Vega, the Panamanian team transformed this match from one of pitching to batting. In the end, Panama beat Spain 5-0. Even though Spain lost this match, their strengths were witnessed by lots of spectators.

Australia vs Cuba
This match was delayed a few hours due to uncertain weather in Taipei. The two teams also played each other in the finals of the 2004 Summer Olympics. Today, the two teams battled in an intense pitching duel.

At the bottom of 9th inning, Frederich Cepeda hit a solo HR and pushed this game into extra innings. Cuba's pitcher Pedro Lazo Iglesias saved his team at the top of 10th inning when the Aussies looked posed to score. Cuba beat Australia 3-2. Osmanis Urrutia's HR at the bottom of 10th inning was the winning run.

Group A

 * Thailand 0-16A Netherlands
 * Venezuela 0-8 Germany

Group B

 * South Korea 5-0 Canada
 * United States 3-0 Mexico
 * Japan 11-1 South Africa

Group A

 * Spain vs Italy
 * Panama vs United States
 * Mexico vs Japan
 * Chinese Taipei vs South Africa

Group B

 * South Korea vs Venezuela
 * Canada vs Thailand
 * Netherlands vs Australia
 * Cuba vs Germany