Chen Wei-yin, starting pitcher for the Chinese Taipei team from Taiwan, hurled for brilliant seven innings.

The lefthanded pitcher struck out seven opponent batters and walked none while yielding only three hits to pave the way for the key victory.

The 23 year-old Chen, who pitches for the Chunichi Dragons in Japan's professional baseball league, allowed only two Dutch hitters to reach second base but managed to hold them scoreless in an impeccable performance

Chen, who took part in the Olympic Games for the second time in his career, overpowered the Dutch batters with consistent fast balls in the low 90 mile-per-hour range.

He said the experience he had gained in the past four years since playing in the Athens Olympic Games in 2004 paid off.

"I can now throw harder and have a wider variety of pitches. Today I was really satisfied with my velocity and control," Chen said when responding to questions raised by reporters.

Reliever Cheng Kai-wen, an upcoming 20-year-old who pitches at the university level games in Taiwan, maintained the momentum and pitched a scoreless two innings to complete the shutout.

While Chen and Cheng pinned the Dutch players down, their teammates jumped on Netherlands starter David Bergman for a run in the second inning and three more in the fourth to cruise to victory.

Shortstop Lin Chih-sheng opened the scoring after he was given a walk. He advanced to third on a Chiang Chih-hsien's double down the right field line, and came home on a sacrifice fly by left fielder Lo Kuo-hui.

Chinese Taipei added three more in the fourth, paced by big hits from catcher Yeh Chun-chang and center-fielder Lin Che-hsuan.

Fighting spirit

"The pitching performance gave the hitters a lot of confidence, and they did a pretty good job. The fielding was also above average," said Taiwan's manager and head coach Hung Yi-chung.

Hung credited the victory to the strong fighting spirit of his team.

Even Netherlands manager Robert Eenhoorn praised Taiwan's starting pitcher Chen.

"Because of him, we had almost no scoring opportunities. The difference between the two teams was the pitching, and Taiwan constantly kept us under pressure," commented Eenhoorn, who played for the New York Yankees and California/Anaheim Angels in the 1990s.

Dutch pitcher Bergman, who helped end Cuban team's stunning winning streak of 34 games in international games at a competition in Taiwan last year, was relieved at the top of the fourth inning.

The Netherlands was one of only two teams, along with China, in the eight-team tournament that Taiwan was favored to beat in a field featuring the world's most powerful baseball teams.

But the Netherlands was also the first hurdle the Taiwan team must overcome in order stay in the race.

Baseball is widely held by fans here as an Olympic event in which Taiwan has a better chance to garner a medal. Chinese Taipei baseballers returned home with a silver medal from a previous Olympic tournament.

Baseball has also been a rare financially viable professional sport on the island mainly because of ample supply of new players from the Little League and the passionate support from a large arm of loyal sport fans.

Accompanied by Jia Qinglin, chairman of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, and Chinese officials dealing with Taiwan affairs, political leaders from Taiwan were at the game to root for the Taiwan players at the game.

They included Kuomintang (KMT) Chairman Wu Po-hsiung, KMT Secretary General Wu Den-yi, People First Party Chairman James Soong, and a group of legislators.

Wu was pleased with the outcome of the game. He also reiterated his earlier comments that athletes from Taiwan have the "host team" advantage in the competition in Beijing.

In addition to fans flying from Taiwan, there is also a large number of supporters like Taiwan businesspeople and their families to cheer for the Taiwan teams.

Hon Hai Group founder Terry Gou and his just wedded wife were in the cheering crowds.

The employees of Taiwanese-invested firms in China and Chinese impressed with Taiwan's generous help offered to victims of the devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province in May became volunteers backing the Taiwanese athletes.

Enjoying poached eggs

For those staying in Taiwan, baseball fans used various ways to lend spiritual support for the players.

Tsai Ing-wen, chairwoman of the opposition Democratic Progressive Party, and DPP Legislator Ker Chien-min led colleagues to eat "hebaodan" -- or poached eggs -- while watching the live broadcast of the game against the Netherlands.

The Chinese pronunciation of "hebaodan" sounds and implies "Holland posting a zero" for the game.

Several hundreds of fans gathered at the --inyi Commercial District to watch the game at a giant screen set up by the Taipei City Government and Chunghwa Telecom.

Aside from waving national flags and slogans, quite a number of fans held banners bearing the Chinese name of Cheng Cheng-kung (Koxinga) to lend their support.

Eating 'sun cakes'

Cheng was a great general who led troops mainly from the neighboring Fujian Province to drive Dutch colonists and troops out of Taiwan more than two centuries ago.

Next up for Taiwan, however, is Japan, one of the tournament's favorites and a perennial sport nemesis for Taiwan teams.

For the game set for 7:00 p.m. today, local fans have conjured up other creative ways to lend spiritual support for the Taiwan baseball team.

Taichung Mayor Jason Hu has encouraged people in his city and tourists to eat as much "sun cakes" as they can. "Sun cakes" -- called "taiyangbien" in Chinese -- have been one of most popular delicacies in the central Taiwan city and "sun" is the emblem in Japan's national flag.

Store owners said their "sun cakes" have been selling like hot cakes since yesterday afternoon.

In other baseball games held yesterday in Beijing, Canada blanked China 10-0, South Korea edged the U.S. 8-7, and Cuba defeated Japan 4-2.