TAINAN, Taiwan -- Left fielder Trevor Crowe (So., Arizona, Portland, Ore.) doubled home the game-winning run in with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning to give the 2004 USA Baseball National Team a dramatic 4-3 come-from-behind victory over Korea Monday afternoon at Tainan Stadium in the FISU II World University Baseball Championship.
With the victory, Team USA (13-7) remains undefeated in tournament play with a perfect 3-0 record. Korea drops to 1-1 in pool play. Hawai`i Head Coach Mike Trapasso is an assistant coach with Team USA.
Crowe's double to the right field gap scored Drew Stubbs (Fr., Texas, Atlanta, Texas) all the way from first base to cap a comeback that saw Team USA trail 3-0 after the first inning. After single tallies in the second and fifth innings, the Americans tied the game with two outs on the bottom of the eighth inning. Right fielder Travis Buck (So., Arizona State, Richland, Wash.) hit a triple off the center field wall and came into score on the same play on a fielding error by Korea second baseman Keun-Woo Jeong.
Closer J. Brent Cox (So., Texas, Bay City, Texas) picked up the win finishing off the top of the ninth inning by stranding the go-ahead run at third base. Reliever Joey Devine (So., NC State, Junction City, Kan.) had another stellar outing, giving up one hit and striking out four in 2.2 scoreless innings. Starting pitcher Luke Hochevar (So., Tennessee, Fowler, Colo.) was tough after a rough first inning, scattering seven hits in six innings. After giving up three runs in the first frame, Hochevar settled down for five scoreless frames and recorded seven strikeouts.
Stubbs and Buck each led Team USA at he plate with tow hits. Stubbs, the Big 12 Freshman of the Year, went 2-for-2 with a double scored two runs. Buck went 2-for-4 to raise his summer average to .453 (24-for-53) and is hitting .600 (6-for-10) during the championship.
Korea jumped out to the early lead with three first-inning runs. Second baseman Keun-Woo Jeong led off with a double down the left field line and scored on an infield single by center fielder Hoon-Rak Choi. After a walk, first baseman Young-Hun Cho doubled to deep center field and catcher San Wong singled in a run to stake Korea to the 3-0 lead.
Team USA cut the lead to 3-1 with a single tally in the bottom of the second inning. Zimmerman led off with a single to center field and moved to second on a fielding error. Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (So., Long Beach State, Sunnyvale, Calif.) put Team USA on the board with a bases loaded sacrifice fly to center field.
The Red, White and Blue scored another run in the bottom of the fifth inning to pull to within one run at 3-2. Stubbs led off with a double and scored on a throwing error by the Korean catcher. Team USA had an opportunity to pull even, but stranded the tying run on third base.
After Buck's dramatic play to tie the game at 3-3 in the eighth, Devine got two quick outs in the ninth inning before a 35-minute rain delay halted play. After Devine gave up a single, Cox came in and stranded the go-ahead run at third base.
Stubbs led off the ninth inning with a sharp single to left field and scored all the way from first base with the game-winning run on Crowe's seventh double of the summer.
Korean relief pitcher Seung-Hwan Oh gave up three hits and two runs over two innings to record the loss. Jeong committed three of Korea's four errors, but led his team at the plate going 3-for-5 with a double and run scored. No other Korean player had more than one hit.
Team USA continues play in the FISU II World University Baseball Championship on Tuesday against Mexico at 1 p.m. (1 a.m. EST) at Chengching Stadium in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Right-hander Mike Pelfrey (So., Wichita State, Wichita, Kan.) is scheduled to start on the mound for Team USA.
-usabaseball.com-
