The U18 World Cup wrapped up on Sunday with the #4 ranked Chinese Taipei team defeating team USA 2-1 in the championship game. The team captain was 18-year-old shortstop Tsung-Che Cheng, who signed with the Pittsburgh Pirates back in July for $380,000.
Cheng didn’t have a great series at the plate with a .219/.313/.306 slash line in nine games, with a double, triple, five runs, five RBIs, four walks and two stolen bases. In fact, his best game came in the warm-up game against team USA right before the games started to count in the standings. He played eight games at shortstop and moved over to second base for one of the early games in the tournament. Here’s a highlight video from the pre-tournament games, which shows him collecting three hits, then follows with three defensive plays.
[Taiwan U-18] Pittsburgh Pirates' prospect 鄭宗哲 (Cheng Tsung-Che) went 2-for-3 in a warm up game against USA today. The 18-year-old shortstop was signed by the Pirates for $380,000 USD back in July. #MLBTW pic.twitter.com/6Supj5V7nV
— CPBL STATS – ♥️ #95, Mina (@GOCPBL) August 27, 2019
Here’s Cheng holding up the trophy with his team at the championship ceremony.
Here’s the link to the article for his signing. He has turned 18 since that article was posted. Cheng will be headed to the Fall Instructional League at Pirate City next week.
Luis Tello also played in the U18 tournament for team Panama. He hit .208/.367/.292 in eight games. The 18-year-old Tello hit .273/.356/.330 in 54 games for the DSL Pirates1 this season.
