Chinese Taipei is more commonly known as Taiwan. We did not play this team last season. Their only NPF action so far this season is against the Philadelphia Force, going on this weekend. In order to determine how well they did against the Force, I'll first look at the how good Philadelphia is.

The Force are atop the standings, at 12-3. Three of their series have been against international competition, with the only NPF team faced is NE Riptide. The Force swept the Riptide at New England, then split at home. My NPF Stats site shows the Force leading the NPF in batting average, though in the middle in slugging and OBP. They have played the least number of games so far (tied with Bandits at 15), but are third in hits.

The Force drafted the two WCWS Championship pitchers, Katie Burkhart and Megan Gibson. These two have identical stats, with 1 run allowed in 23 innings, for a 0.30 ERA. The overall team ERA is 2.16, second only to our own 1.57 in the league.

It would appear that the Force are a pretty good team, so how did they fare against Chinese Taipei? The Force have only scored 5 runs in 3 games. Only Burkhart and Gibson's pitching have allowed the Force to win 2 of the 3 games, allowing just 1 run in the first two games combined.  In game 1, the Force had 10 hits, and had 7 additional base runners from walks (3), errors (3), and a HBP, yet could only score two runs total. That could be an excellent job of working out of jams, or just really poor clutch hitting by the Force. In game 2, pitcher Chueh Ming Hui held the Force to just 2 hits and 1 run over 9 innings. (Her 3 walks and 2 HBP probably didn't help her.) Game 3 saw the Force do a better job, scoring 2 on 5 hits, plus 1 walk and 2 HBP.

Chinese Taipei, on the other hand, didn't do too well at the plate themselves, scoring only 4 times in 3 games. Batters to keep an eye on include Lai Meng Ting and Pan Tzu Hui (3 hits each), and Lu Hsueh Mei (2 hits, 1 HR).

Another interesting stat is that all three games have gone into extra innings.

Based on the 3 games played so far against Chinese Taipei completed, I'm just slightly concerned about our series with this team. I'm sure our pitching will keep the games low-or-no scoring, but I wonder if our week off could hurt our timing at the plate in the first game, especially if we face Chueh Ming Hui in game 1. After that, I think we'll be fine, so I'm predicting at least 3 wins, 4 if we win on Monday.

Our week off has given the rest of the league time to attempt to catch up with us on the leader boards. The HR leader board still shows 3 Glory players (Sara, Courtney, and Nicole), tied with Jess Merchant and Kristen Butler, all with 4. Oli and Courtney remain tied for 1st in RBIs with 13, but close behind with 12 are Kellie Wilkerson (Force), Kristen Butler (Racers), and Jaime Clark (Bandits). LaDonia and Courtney are the only Glory in the top 20 in batting average (7th and 8th, respectively).

Sarah Pauly is now tied for the lead in wins with Eileen Canney (5 each), though she remains 2nd in Ks (50, behind Canney's 62). Pauly remains atop the league in ERA, with her 1.08 far ahead of Jessica Sallinger's second-place number (2.32). Serrano, at 1.42, does not have enough innings to qualify. (And it won't be long until Burkart and Gibson qualify, and take over the top spots with their current 0.30 numbers!)