July 10, 2017
Taipei, July 6 (CNA) Nine baseball teams will compete at the annual national women's baseball championship in Taichung from July 8-13 and players who perform well could be picked for Taiwan's national team which will compete in the upcoming Women's Baseball Asian Cup (WBAC) in September in Hong Kong.
As the national championship reaches its 14th year, the University of Taipei team has won the championship for the last five years.
Female baseball players in Taiwan are not viewed in the same way as their male counterparts, though the players' enthusiasm and the effort put in is just the same, said Lin Tsung-cheng (林宗成) secretary general of Chinese Taipei Baseball Association (CTBA).
Sophiyah Liu (劉柏君), the first female umpire recognized by CTBA and an umpire at the 2017 WBAC, noted that foreign professional baseball teams have tried hard to attract more female fans through promotions, adding that as mothers are usually responsible for their kids' extracurricular activities, "mothers who like baseball encourage their kids to like baseball."
Liu also encouraged female players and coaches to keep playing baseball.
The first WBAC will be held from Sep. 2-7 in Hong Kong. The top four nations out of six participants qualify to participate in the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC) World Cup next year.
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