SEA Games Baseball: China Falls to Thailand, Eyes Future Medals

In the men’s baseball Group A round-robin match of the Southeast Asian Games held in Pathum Thani, north of Bangkok, on Tuesday (December 9) afternoon, the Chinese men’s team once led 3-1, but was reversed by the host team Thailand, and finally lost 4-6.

SEA GamesThere hasn’t been a baseball game in six years. The last time this sport appeared was at the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines, when the Philippines defeated Thailand to win the championship, while my country lost to Indonesia in the bronze medal match and finished fourth.

In this campaign, facing the Thai team ranked 31st in the world, the Singaporean team, ranked 18 places lower than their opponents, started strongly, leading 3-1 in the first three games and leading 4-2 after six games. The situation was excellent. However, the Thai team, which was fighting against the odds, scored four points in a row in the seventh inning and finally achieved a reversal 6-4.

Our Japanese coach: We must win back our first baseball medal

Entering this SEA Games, the Chinese men’s team aimed to defeat the Philippines and Thailand, the top two teams in Southeast Asia, but lost to these two powerful teams 3-17 and 4-6 respectively. Looking back on the match against Thailand, our Japanese coach Yuki Kikuna hoped that the players would not be discouraged and perform better in the future.

He told Lianhe Zaobao through a translator: “In the first half of the game, we fully followed the tactics we formulated before the game, performed as we wanted, and the overall rhythm was very good. However, in the second half of the game, our opponents achieved a lead in some key situations, but our handling of details and accuracy in grasping key moments were still a little bit behind.

Further reading

[SEA Games]Baseball returns to the SEA Games after six years and my country defeated Vietnam 19-12 and won its second victory

[SEA Games]Winning the badminton rematch secures the bronze medal and the Singapore men’s and women’s teams strive to qualify for the finals

“I think some players will have a strong sense of frustration and responsibility. At the same time, I also believe that they have gained confidence from this game and proved that they are capable of competing at this level… Starting from tomorrow, we will start again and must bring home the first (SEA Games) medal in Singapore baseball history.”

As of now, the Chinese men’s baseball team ranks tied for third among the seven participating teams with a record of two wins and two losses. It will face Malaysia on Wednesday (10th), which has lost all four games and is at the bottom, and challenge Indonesia on Thursday (11th) with the same record. After the round robin, the top two teams will compete for the gold medal, while the third and fourth teams will compete for the bronze medal.

Talking about the team’s prospects for the SEA Games, Kan Yaorong, the leader of the Chinese baseball team, said: “Our goal is very clear – to win the game and bring home the medal… I hope our supporters in Singapore can continue to cheer for us.”

my country’s women’s cricket team lost to defending champion Thailand

In addition, in the women’s cricket T10 preliminaries, our country also lost to the defending champion Thailand and missed a good start. In the 11-a-side cricket match, the number after the letter “T” represents the number of rounds. Six balls are thrown in each round, and the batsman can continue to hit the ball until he is out.

Our country scored nine points in 6.5 rounds and had 10 people out, while Thailand scored 12 points in 0.4 rounds and had no one out, easily winning a big victory. Next, the Chinese women’s team will face Indonesia on Wednesday (10th), and the men’s team will face the Philippines in the T20 preliminaries on the same day. We look forward to a good performance.