July 26, 2001

Augusta, NJ — – Team USA lefthander Tim Cunningham (LHP, So, Stanford) earned his first win and Rickie Weeks (OF, Fr, Southern) blasted a pair of home runs as the USA Baseball National Team (19-5-1) produced a 10-2 triumph over Taiwan Wednesday night at Skylands Park. It was Team USA’s 29th consecutive win over the Taiwanese National Team, in games played dating back to 1990.

Cunningham – making just his second Team USA start – hurled five innings to even up his record at 1-1. The Stanford lefty allowed one run on four hits while fanning five, but did walk six batters, including two to lead off the sixth that led to his departure from the game. He was backed up by Bob Zimmermann (RHP, So, SW Missouri St.), who pitched four innings of quality relief to gain his team-leading sixth save.

In the top of the first, Weeks took Taiwanese starter Chao Hao Tseng’s first offering to him and deposited it over the wall in left field to give Team USA a 1-0 head start. The Americans added three more in the second off Tseng (0-1), although two of the runs were unearned. Omar Quintanilla (IF, FR, Texas) and Jeremy Reed (IF, So, Long Beach St.) each had run-scoring hits in the inning, while Carlos Quentin (OF, Fr, Stanford) chipped in a sacrifice fly.

Kevin Howard (IF, So, Miami) ran his hitting streak to ten games with a third-inning triple. He plated Team USA’s fifth run of the game when Taipei reliever Po Chang Shen committed a balk. During the streak, Howard is batting .486 (18-for-37), with five doubles, one triple, and one home run.

Reed picked up another RBI in the fourth, and Sam Fuld (OF, Fr, Stanford) got into the mix with a run-scoring triple in the eighth, later scoring on a Ryan Hubele (C, So, Texas) sacrifice fly. Taiwan scored their first run in the sixth on a fielder’s choice groundout. Weeks added a two-run blast in the ninth off Yueh Ping Lin, before Taipei posted their second tally in the bottom of the ninth off Zimmermann.

The USA National Team has now won 12 games in a row, and 17 of their last 20 games overall with four games remaining on the Tour.

The 2001 USA Baseball National Team Red, White and Blue Tour continues on Thursday evening in Lakewood, New Jersey when Team USA and Taiwan square off in a 6:00 pm doubleheader. Both games are scheduled to go seven innings. For a roster, statistics and boxscores of the 2001 USA Baseball National Team, go to www.usabaseball.com.

 2001 USA Red, White and Blue Tour USA at Taiwan Jul 25, 2001 at Augusta, NJ (Skylands Park)

USA 10 (19-5-1) Taiwan 2 (0-4)

AB R H RBI AB R H RBI

Reed 1b 4 1 2 2 Wang, S.H. 2b 5 0 3 0Weeks lf 5 2 3 3 Chen, C.H. ss 4 0 1 0Baker ss 5 0 0 0 Chen, Y.C. lf 5 0 0 0Howard 3b 5 1 1 0 Lin, C.S. 1b 2 0 0 0Snyder dh 2 1 1 0 Tseng, Y.Y. 1b 0 0 0 0Fuld cf 5 2 1 1 Chen, K.F. dh 2 1 0 0Hubele c 2 1 0 1 Chang, C.M. cf 3 0 0 0Quintanilla 2b 4 2 2 1 Hsu, Y.H. 3b 3 0 0 0Quentin rf 3 0 1 1 Kao, C.K. c 4 1 1 1Cunningham p 0 0 0 0 Cheng, C.H. rf 2 0 1 0Zimmermann p 0 0 0 0 Chen, C. ph 1 0 0 0 Tseng, C.H. p 0 0 0 0 Shen, P.C. p 0 0 0 0 Tu, C.W. p 0 0 0 0 Lin, Y.P. p 0 0 0 0

Totals…… 35 10 11 9 Totals…… 31 2 6 1

Score by innings: R H E———————————————-USA 131 100 022 – 10 11 1Taiwan 000 001 001 – 2 6 2———————————————-

E – Zimmermann, Chen, Y.C., Chang, C.M.. DP – USA 1, Taiwan 1. LOB – USA 5,Taiwan 10. 3B – Howard, Fuld, Kao, C.K.. HR – Weeks 2(2). SH – Hsu, Y.H..SF – Hubele, Quentin. CS – Weeks.

IP H R ER BB SO WP BK HP IBB AB BF Fly Gnd NP

Cunningham W 1-1 5.0 4 1 1 6 5 0 0 0 0 18 24 1 8Zimmermann S,6 4.0 2 1 1 1 4 1 0 0 0 13 15 2 5

Tseng, C.H. L 0-1 2.1 5 5 3 2 0 0 0 0 0 11 14 3 4Shen, P.C. 1.2 3 1 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 7 7 1 2Tu, C.W. 3.0 1 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 10 10 3 3Lin, Y.P. 2.0 2 4 4 2 1 2 0 1 0 7 11 3 2

WP – Zimmermann, Lin, Y.P. 2. HBP – by Lin, Y.P. (Reed). BK – Shen, P.C. 2.

Strikeouts – Baker, Howard, Fuld, Hubele, Wang, S.H., Chen, C.H., Chen,Y.C. 2, Chang, C.M., Hsu, Y.H., Kao, C.K., Cheng, C.H., Chen, C.. Walks -Snyder 3, Hubele, Chen, C.H., Lin, C.S., Tseng, Y.Y., Chen, K.F. 2, Chang,C.M., Cheng, C.H..

Umpires – Home:Cerra 1st:Boteta 3rd:BrodzinskiStart: 7:00 pm Time: 3:00 Attendance: 1003Cunningham faced 2 batters in the 6th.