Taiwan shuts out Netherlands 5-0

"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.

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