USA Collegiate Team defeats Chinese Taipei 3-1

NEW TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan – The USA Baseball Collegiate National Team scored three runs in the early innings and strong pitching allowed it to hold up as the squad claimed a 3-1 victory over Chinese Taipei on Wednesday at Xinzhuang Stadium. The win evens the series at one game each, setting up a deciding doubleheader on Thursday.

Due to the projected landfall of Typhoon Nepartak on Friday, the two teams will now play a pair of games Thursday, starting at 10:45 a.m. local time (10:45 p.m. on Wednesday ET). The second game will take place 45 minutes after the first with one seven-inning game and one nine-inning affair. Right-hander JB Bukauskas (North Carolina) will start the first game and southpaw Brendan McKay (Louisville) is slated for game two.

Following the doubleheader, Team USA will immediately return to safe shelter at its hotel in Taoyuan where it will remain for the entirety of the storm.

In Wednesday’s contest, the U.S. got rolling early, taking advantage of a leadoff double by TJ Friedl (Nevada) in the bottom of the first. Jeren Kendall (Vanderbilt) followed with a base hit of his own to put runners on the corners and Keston Hiura then plated the game’s first run with a sacrifice fly.

After a heads-up play by Kendall to move up to second on the throw to the plate, Jake Burger (Missouri State) punched a two-string single through the right side to quickly put Team USA up 2-0 after just one inning.

Burger, who finished 3-for-4 on the day, tacked another run on the scoreboard for the Red, White and Blue two innings later when he dropped an RBI single into right-center to bring Friedl home once more.

That would be all the offense the U.S. would need as Alex Faedo (Florida), David Peterson (Oregon) and Tyler Johnson (South Carolina) combined to limit Chinese Taipei to just one run.

Both Faedo and Peterson fired four frames for Team USA in the contest before handing the ball over to Johnson who earned the save with a scoreless ninth. Faedo allowed one run while striking out seven and Peterson fanned two in his four scoreless stanzas.

“I’m proud of the guys. You never know if there is going to be a hangover effect after losing a game like we did last night. It was an awful feeling for all of us but I thought (Alex) Faedo and (David) Peterson were outstanding today. Chinese Taipei is a pretty good team. They can square the ball up well, they put some pressure on you and run the bases but I thought we made some big pitches and made some good defensive plays. What we didn’t do is get the key at-bat after a good first inning. We were ready to play early and that was the story of the game. Maybe the emotion of last night carried us and allowed us to get off to a good start.”

“I think he is getting better and better. The power hasn’t shown up but I think he is getting more in rhythm and the barrel is arriving on time. As he moves along and gets a little more confidence, I think we are going to see him drive the ball more in the alley and maybe over the fence some. He is a neat kid. He has a lot of energy, likes to play the game and seems like a very popular kid on the team. He is a very positive-minded kid and his attitude is contagious.”

“He has been unbelievable. Not in our wildest dreams when we were putting this team together did we expect to get what we are getting out of him. When he was described to us I thought he would be a little grinder but he is hitting the ball in the gap, he is running the bases, he’s push bunting. Him and Jeren (Kendall) at the top of the lineup are fun to watch. I wish we had about nine of those guys, they are little pests. I just tip my cap to T.J. Bruce, Jake Silverman and the Nevada staff for bringing his name to the table. He belongs on Team USA, there is no question about that.”