Taiwan trounced Japan 3-0 Thursday to clinch the title of the 2010 Asian 'AA' Baseball Championship being held in Bangkok. The Taiwanese nine scored three runs at the bottom of the first inning and maintained the lead throughout the game. Taiwanese manager Hu Jui-cheng attributed his team's win mainly to its strong defense, especially starting pitcher Lin Hua-ching, who used heaters and breaking balls to almost completely block the offense of the Japanese, allowing only one hit. Prior to the Japanese shutdown, Taiwan blanked Hong Kong (15-0), Indonesia (21-0) , Thailand (16-0) and South Korea 10-4 in previous games of the event that kicked off Aug. 20. Japan beat South Korea (5-2), China (6-1), Sri Lanka (8-0) and Hong Kong (10-0) to advance to the final. Roy W.W. Wu, Taiwan's representative in Thailand, watched the game and immediately extended a congratulatory message from President Ma Ying-jeou to the team upon the victory. Many Taiwanese consider baseball to be the 'national sport' and this year, the country has done well in several international youth baseball titles, including the 2010 IBAF World Junior Baseball Championship in Canada that ended Aug. 1 and the Junior League Baseball World Series Championship in the United States that ended Aug. 21. 