WORLD BASEBALL CLASSIC: POOL C - CHINESE TAIPEI VS KOREA

March 8, 2026

Hai-Jui Tseng

Stuart Fairchild

Chieh-Hsien Chen

Tokyo Dome

Team Chinese Taipei

Postgame Press Conference

Chinese Taipei 5, Korea 4

Q. Looking back at today's game, it was such a great ballgame, and it was also an emotional game. What does the game mean to you?

HAI-JUI TSENG: Yes, was a thrilling game, fun, and also it's a very difficult, tough game as well. Early in the game was not something we deserved but at the end of the game we played as one unit and finally we got W. We got the win.

And I knew that it's going to happen before game started that we are going to have a few opportunities to score runs. And from the beginning to the end, all the players played hard on their own role, and finally we won. That makes me so happy.

CHIEH-HSIEN CHEN: First of all, I am thankful to all of my teammates, coaches and head coach. Since I've got injured, I didn't -- I just missed the opportunity to play but from the bottom of my heart, I'm willing to win, and I'm expecting all of my teams to do my best, to their best, and also our fans supported us very deeply. As a result, we won. After we won, tears came out perfect my eyes. We never gave up, and neither did the fans. Tokyo Dome, I appreciate so much the fans, and I think today, Tokyo Dome became our home stadium.

STUART FAIRCHILD: That was one much most fun baseball games I ever played in my life. It was back and forth the entire way, went into extra innings, and to come through at the end and win by one was remarkable.

You know, thank you to my teammates. We were pulling for each other the entire game start to finish. Everybody had each other's backs and it didn't matter when we went down. We responded and we kept doing that the entire way. And you know, that's a testament of a team with chemistry.

And, you know, thank you to the fans, too, for giving us energy and supporting us the entire game, too.

Q. Now you are 2-2. You still have a possibility to go for the quarterfinal round. I know that it's not your decision. You're going to have to wait, but how do you think you're going to stay for tomorrow?

HAI-JUI TSENG: Yeah, what a ballgame for today. Not only all 30 players, and also all my coaching staff, we worked hard with the pressure. First of all, I want all of them to get rest, get recovered, and for tomorrow, I want them to spend the time with joy, with their family, if they have, while we still have an opportunity, so we wish them luck. And also, it all depends on the situation, and I want -- I want all the players to be strong mentally and be ready for the flight to Miami.

CHIEH-HSIEN CHEN: We've been working hard without any rest. From Chinese Taipei, we worked close to two weeks without having any day off. We to Japan, had another work out session, spring training stuff, but luckily tomorrow, we're going to have a day off finally. So I'd like to get some rest and relax, spend some time with family being relaxed.

Regarding the game for tomorrow, we have nothing to do to control it. So all we can do is just wait for destiny. I wish our God can give us a great idea, either tomorrow -- today and tomorrow we are going to just wait.

STUART FAIRCHILD: I don't have much else to add to that. That's exactly right. It's out of our hands at this point. We did as much as we could. I want to say how proud I am of this team, after the start of this tournament going down 0-2, to fight back like that, it's pretty incredible. You know, we did as much as we could in the last two days, and now we'll watch the rest of games and see what happens.

Q. You had never beaten Korea in the World Baseball Classic, if I'm correct. This win, along with the Premier12, what does it say about the state of baseball in Taiwan? Fort Stuart, how does this compare to Major League Baseball?

HAI-JUI TSENG: As a representative, we've been always facing Team Korea as a very tough competitor. I've been watching the games against Korea, and the question was, is this our first-ever win of WBC tournament against Korea. I didn't even know that until you just pointed us, and we felt a lot of pressure but thankful enough, we won tonight, finally.

CHIEH-HSIEN CHEN: I've been watching the WBC tournament since I was a kid. The Chinese Taipei people, I agree, we never won against Team Korea, but nowadays, with this tournament, I'm part of Chinese Taipei's national team, so I have a responsibility to beat them. We have power and strength, and we have luck, as well. Put them all together, and we won finally.

For the younger generation, I think what we did today showed the possibility for the future, and overall, Team Korea is a always tough, rival opponent. But whenever we face against them the next time, I'm proud and for sure that we can have another great game against Team Korea in the future.

HAI-JUI TSENG: In my experience in the major leagues, you play in front of big crowds, a lot of people, a lot of fans who care deeply about their teams. I think what makes this tournament different is it feels like there's a completely different level of passion, players playing for their home countries.

It's a four-game tournament in the first roud, as opposed to a 162-game season. So it feels the fans are in it every single pitch. They are living and dying with us as we go through the game, and it's a different energy than I've experienced.

Q. Before the tournament started, you mentioned to us that the strength of Chinese Taipei's team is the bond, the team work and working as unit, you mentioned that to us as Chinese Taipei's strength. After playing four games, what's in your mind looking back through the tournament?

CHIEH-HSIEN CHEN: As captain, when we joined the national team back in 2023, and we've been spending a couple years with most of the players and all the coaches and the skipper was the same. Looking back from 2023 to previous time, we were always challengers, sometimes we have to take a risk. And not only me but also all the entire team are thinking the same way. Whenever we faced the international matches, when we play against another country representing the area, and we've been working hard, sometimes there was differences in between the countries, but no matter when you play, where you play, international matches is always tough.

As you know, Chinese Taipei is such a small country but with great fans, great teammates, great coaches, every single player has a pride representing our nation. We worked hard, and I think that we are still trying to keep showing to the world that a small country can do a lot of things.