Yu-Ying Hsieh: Women's Baseball star a Baseball5 trailblazer for Chinese Taipei
Women’s Baseball World Cup star Yu-Ying Hsieh is looking forward to continue to lead the charge for Chinese Taipei beyond the WBSC Baseball5 World Cup 2024 in Hong Kong, China where she helped Chinese Taipei to a sixth place finish on Friday.
The 32-year-old has played in six WBSC Women’s BaseballWorld Cups having started in 2010 as an 18-year-old, helping Chinese Taipei toa bronze medal before also featuring in every edition including the most recentedition – Group Stage in Miyoshi City, Japan and the Finals this year inThunder Bay, Canada where Chinese Taipei finished sixth.
Now having played in her first WBSC Baseball5 World Cup, shesaid she loves all the sport’s attributes and wants to “promote the sport and gladlyhelp women play Baseball5, especially ahead of the next Asia Cup”.
“As a women’s baseball player, I have been to many World Cupsbefore but when I started Baseball5 I loved it straight away,” she said. “I’m alittle bit older than the other but I’m really happy to have the opportunity toparticipate and try my best to maintain my physical condition.
“Women’s baseball is not as popular as men’s baseball in Taiwanbut what I like is that all the women’s baseball participants are trying topromote the game to make the sport better and get more attention for women’sbaseball. But I like the pace of Baseball5, it’s very fast with a great tempo andwith every ball you have to think about what to do next. I also like the musicand the atmosphere, so it’s a great sport to encourage everyone to play.”
Having played in the second Baseball5 Asia Cup earlier thisyear, Yu-Ying said she was grateful for the opportunity to learn more aboutBaseball5 in Hong Kong.
“I see that a lot of the national teams have progressed overthe years and for instance, when we were playing Asia Cup, we could only seethe teams from Asia but during this World Cup we could learn a lot from theother teams. We have a lot of possibilities to improve our game.
Referring to the first couple of day’s play when ChineseTaipei, ranked No. 1 in the world, lost to Venezuela in three sets and beatSouth Africa by the same margin, Yu-Ying said it was a roller-coaster start.
“With our ability in Baseball5 the South Africa game shouldhave been an easy one but it still went to the third set. It’s because we had toomany mistakes and stress from the first game (lost 2-1 to Venezuela) so we couldn’tdo what we’re able to do.
“Glad we had the second game (won 2-0 against Lithuania) and the third game we showed our standards (2-0 v Hong Kong) so happy to be able to win the game against South Africa in the end.”
Having won bronze in Mexico City and now finished sixth inHong Kong, there’s no betting against Yu-Ying continuing the Baseball5 ride forChinse Taipei.