Zhang Yu

JeniZhang13@163.com

MORE than 1,000 baseball players, coaches and referees from the mainland and Taiwan gathered for the finals of the third Cross-Straits Student Baseball League, which officially kicked off in Shenzhen on Saturday, with the opening ceremony being held on the baseball field of Zhongshan Park in Nanshan District.

Initiated in 2017, the baseball tournament is billed as the largest individual sporting exchange event for young students across the Taiwan Straits.

A total of 899 players will compete for five age group championships, namely, U10, U12, U15, U18 and the university group.

Among the teams, 21 of them, with 455 players in total, are from eight cities and counties in Taiwan.

The other 21 teams are from the mainland, including Beijing and the five provinces of Liaoning, Sichuan, Shandong, Fujian and Guangdong, with a total of 444 students.

There are 100 baseball games held in eight venues across Nanshan District in the battle for five championships, according to the organizers.

Chiang Chung-hao from Taiwan coaches the baseball team of North China University of Technology (NCUT). He hopes that by constantly strengthening sporting exchanges between the two sides, teenagers across the Straits will be able to firmly forge a bond and sow the seeds of friendship.

Lai Hung-ren, a Taiwanese member of the baseball team at NCUT, has been studying on the mainland for more than a year.

“Baseball is very popular in Taiwan, and I hope it can become popular on the mainland. I also hope to make more friends from the mainland,” Lai said.

Co-organized by the Shenzhen Municipal Government and the Cross-Straits Baseball Exchange and Cooperation Commission, the tournament will run through Thursday.