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OCALA, Fla. -- Altoona moved into bracket play in the Babe Ruth Baseball 16-18 World Series by finishing up pool play Wednesday night with an 11-5 victory over Chinese Taipei.
Altoona finished 3-1 and placed second in Pool D. The team will now face Pool C third-place team Asia Pacific (2-2) at 10 a.m. today in the single-elimination championship bracket.
A win over Asia Pacific would move Altoona into the 4 p.m. quarterfinals against Pool A first-place team Mid County of Nederland, Texas, which has gone 4-0 and outscored its opponents 32-7. A loss to Asia Pacific would drop Altoona into the Diamond bracket and a consolation game at 4 p.m.
Against Chinese Taipei, Altoona got on the board in the first inning when EJ Ulery drove in Dante LaRocco.
Altoona then opened up a 4-0 lead in the second inning when Leland Baer singled in Caden Gibbons, and Nick Kraft and Elijah Shade scored on wild pitches.
A bases-loaded walk to Kraft scored another run in the third, and Altoona collected three more runs in the fourth -- a bases-loaded walk to Cayden Gibbons, an RBI single from Jay Albarano and a sacrifice fly from Caden Gibbons.
Brady Steiner singled in a run in the seventh, and Ulery followed with a two-run single to make it 11-0. Chinese Taipei got five runs in the bottom of the seventh before Connor Waite entered in relief and closed the door.
Baer and Shade each threw three scoreless innings for Altoona.
ALTOONA (11): LaRocco 3b 220, Steiner ss 311, Ulery 1b-lf-1b 421, Cay. Gibbons c 300, Albarano 2b 502, Cad. Gibbons cf-p-cf 311, Bell rf 200, Kraft eh 121, Baer p 201, Shade p 222, Waite 1b-p 000, Zitsch lf-cf-lf 311. Totals -- 30-11-10.
CHINESE TAIPEI (5): Yu 2b-ss 300, S. Kao cf 010, H. Kao lf-p-lf 311, Wu 1b 210, Liao dh 210, Lin rf 210, Chen 3b-2b 301, Huang c 300, Lee ss-p 300, Liu lf-3b 300. Totals -- 24-5-2.
SCORE BY INNINGS
Altoona 131 300 3--11 10 1
Chinese Taipei 000 000 5-- 5 2 2
E--LaRocco, Chen, Lee. 2B--Cad. Gibbons, Albarano. RBI--Ulery 3, Steiner, Cay. Gibbons, Albarano, Cad. Gibbons, Kraft, Baer, Lin, Chen, Huang. WP--Shade. LP--Chen. SO--Shade 3, Waite 1, Chen 3, H. Kao 1. BB--Baer 2, Cad. Gibbons 3, Chen 8, H. Kao 1.
Records: Altoona (3-1); Chinese Taipei (2-2).