The 2025 Asian Baseball Championship tournament began today in Pingtan County, China. Eight teams are participating – Japan, China, the Phillippines, Pakistan, Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong, and Palestine.
Cincinnati Reds prospect Sheng-En Lin is on the Taiwan roster and he started the first game of the tournament early this morning. Before he took the mound he was given a 2-0 lead. By the time he left the game Taiwan was up 10-0 over Palestine.
The game didn’t exactly start well for Lin. He walked the first two hitters he faced and only threw one strike between the two plate appearances. But from that point forward the recently turned 20-year-old was pretty much locked in. Lin struck out the next three batters to get out of the jam. In both the 2nd and 3rd innings he would strike out two batters. In his 4th and final inning of the day he would strike out the side.
You can see some of the highlights from the game in the video below:
The final line for the day for Sheng-En Lin was of four hitless innings with two walks, a hit batter, no runs, and 10 strikeouts. He was awarded the win in the game that lasted just seven innings. Taiwan won 14-0 and allowed one hit – an infield single with two outs in the bottom of the 7th inning.
The tournament seems to be one of uneven talent levels if the first day of games tells us much. These were the scores of the four games played: 18-1, 14-0, 16-1, 10-0.
The tournament runs through the 28th, so there’s a chance that Sheng-En Lin could pitch in one more game in the tournament.