Hwa Nan Youth Baseball Tournament: Taitung County defeats Taipei City for 2nd straight win

According to the Central News Agency, Taitung County faced Taipei City in the winner's bracket of the Hwa Nan Youth Baseball Tournament. Taitung County showed resilience, trailing by two runs after six innings, but staged a comeback in the top of the 7th. Lai Yu-hao hit a go-ahead single, and the team scored four runs in the inning to win 8-6, marking their second consecutive win in the preliminaries. The 2026 Hwa Nan Financial Cup National Youth Baseball Tournament serves as the selection event for this year's U15 Baseball World Cup. Taitung County defeated Yunlin County in their first game. Taitung County scored first in the 2nd inning with three consecutive hits after two outs. They added three more runs in the 3rd inning with four hits to take a 4-0 lead. Taipei City scored one run in the 3rd, and in the 5th, capitalized on pitching issues to score one run, followed by a grand slam from Chen Jin-hao to take a 6-4 lead. Taitung County rallied in the 7th, with Lai Pin-rui starting with a hit, followed by an error, walks, and a double by Jindalu Maibute to cut the lead. Lai Yu-hao then hit a go-ahead single, and Chen De-cheng added an insurance run. Lai Yu-hao pitched 4 innings, allowing 1 earned run, and contributed the winning RBI. Lin Jie-rui pitched 3 scoreless innings in relief to earn the win. The Taitung team is composed of players from Taitung Physical Education High School, along with players from Taoyuan, Beinan, Xinsheng, and Taiyuan Junior High Schools, led by manager Ou Hong-qi.