Reporter Ren Yifang/Liancheng reports
The "Eastern Sen Cup" 2024 Cross-Strait (Liancheng) Youth Baseball Invitational Tournament and the 5th Cross-Strait (Liancheng) Youth Baseball Cultural Festival opened today (6 July). Yesterday afternoon, the teams on both sides of the strait held a friendly match, and the junior league team from Taitung Hongye Primary School showed their optimistic character, sang traditional songs before the game to boost morale, and finally defeated the team of Pingtan Chengguan Primary School in the mainland with high scores. The children of the Red Leaf Little Baseball Team also said in an interview that even though the score gap is very large, the willpower of the mainland children still persevers to the end and is very willpower.
This year's "Dongsen Cup Cross-Strait (Liancheng) Youth Baseball Invitational Tournament (U12)" will be held tomorrow 6 in Liancheng, Fujian, led by Wang Linglin, chairman of Dongsen Cultural Foundation, to launch a 100-member group of Taiwan 4 school major baseball team to launch an 8-day and 7-night baseball cultural exchange, so that young people on both sides of the strait can "meet friends with ball" to learn football skills and get to know each other in sports.
▲Taitung County Mayor Rao Qingling accompanied Taitung Hongye Primary School to mainland China for exchanges. (Photo/Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
Before the opening ceremony, Guangfu Primary School from Hualien and Hongye Primary School from Taitung took the lead in the stage to carry out a friendly match with the mainland youth team.
Most of the members of the Red Leaf Primary School team are of aboriginal origin, and before the game, they sang traditional songs in a circle to boost morale, and the special cheering method also made the mainland children feel very novel, and they had their first experience and contact with Taiwan's aboriginal culture.
▲Taitung Red Leaf Primary School cheered and shouted on the sidelines. (Photo/Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
When it came to the game, the two camps cheered and shouted to each other, Hongye Primary School led all the way, and the score gap was greatly widened, even if it was difficult to chase points, the children of Pingtan Chengguan Primary School were very persevering, and worked hard to throw the ball and swing the bat, and did not give up any chance to turn the tables.
In an interview with ETToday, the players of Red Leaf Primary School said that they feel that their advantage is the speed of the ball, "as long as they play well." I feel that the mainland children are playing baseball well, and what I admire most is "willpower", although the score gap is more than 20 points, they still work hard and are unwilling to give up.
▲Gao Shengjie, captain of the baseball team of Pingtan Chengguan Primary School in the mainland. (Photo/Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
Gao Shengjie, a primary six student of Pingtan Chengguan Primary School and the captain of the team, said that he had not heard the name of Hongye Primary School before, and after "meeting friends with ball", he found that Taiwan children played baseball really well, and the ball played far away, afraid that the team members would miss it, but the ultimate goal was to win the championship.
The Dongsen Cup cross-strait youth baseball exchange activity, combined with baseball games and living together to promote learning and friendship between children, invited 4 schools are Taoyuan Dayong Primary School, Taichung Wanfeng Primary School, Hualien Guangfu Primary School and Taitung Hongye Primary School, etc., many children are "first-time people", but also the youth baseball team students in rural areas, full of expectations for this trip.
▲Dongsen Cup Cross-Strait Youth Baseball Invitational Tournament, Taitung Hongye Elementary School and Pingtan Chengguan Primary School "Meet Friends with Ball". (Photo/Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
Taitung County Mayor Rao Qingling also pointed out that the Dongsen Cup Cross-Strait Youth Baseball Invitational Tournament was held in Liancheng, which is an important base for the production of baseball in the world.
After the epidemic, young people on both sides of the strait have gradually resumed exchanges, Rao Qingling also said, "Baseball is a great group mutual aid sport, every player has his own place, and it is also a team spirit, I hope similar sports competitions can be normalized."
Dongsen Cup Cross-Strait Youth Baseball Invitational Tournament, with a total of 8 teams and 134 participating athletes, namely Taichung Wanfeng Primary School Baseball Team, Taoyuan Dayong Primary School Baseball Team, Taitung Hongye Primary School Baseball Team, Hualien Guangfu Primary School Baseball Team from Taiwan; The baseball team of Pingtan Aoqian Town Central Primary School in Fujian Province, the baseball team of Pingtan Chengguan Primary School, the baseball team of the Third Experimental Primary School of Minqing County, and the baseball team of Liancheng County Experimental Primary School set up two groups A and B for a single round-robin group stage, and 20 games were launched from the 5th to the 7th according to the total ranking of points.
▼ The scene of the Dongsen Cup Cross-Strait Youth League Invitational Tournament. (Photo/Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)