T-Bolts Banter
Keeping up with Thunderbolts Present and Past
All right, Thunderbolt fans and followers. The one and only Kevin Schweikhardt has gotten me on Substack, and by doing that, I will be on his new TBolts Fan channel (also on Substack). Hopefully, this will also be posted on the website so our followers can keep up to date with what’s happening on 51 East University Boulevard.
In these posts, which I have called T-Bolts Banter, we’ll focus on what T-Bolt players (past, present, and future) are up to at this juncture. Some names will be familiar, some not.
For the upcoming 2025 season in the Ripken League, college baseball players (including our recruits) have begun their seasons. Kevin already noted last year’s Thunderbolts All-Star pitcher Jay Wandell (then at Towson, now at Marymount) was named Athletic East Conference Pitcher of the Week. The right-hander threw four innings of relief with four strikeouts and no runs to seal a 15-6 win in the Saints season opener. Hence the award.
He also earned the win and sits at 1—0 on the young campaign. Congrats, Jay, it seems like you picked up right where you left off at Blair. Glad you’re coming back. You don’t have to be Brock Hunter or Max Eckert to know you can never have enough pitching.
But while we may be looking to 2025, some former Thunderbolts have been looking further ahead to 2026, the year of the next World Baseball Classic. Most of us know the WBC involves 20 teams from around the baseball-playing world playing their best in a tournament ahead of the MLB season. Who can forget the climax of the US-Japan showdown in 2023? Japan’s Shohei Ohtani struck out his then-Angels teammate, Mike Trout (representing the winning run for the US), on a 3-2 pitch in the top of the ninth to preserve Japan’s 3-2 WBC victory?
Not me…and probably not Mike Trout.
So ahead of the WBC, ongoing Qualification tournaments have been winnowing the field. This past week, Taiwan—playing as Chinese Taipei—qualified for next year’s tourney with a clutch 6-3 win over Spain. CT earned the berth as the second of two teams to make it from the Qualifier played in Taiwan. Nicaragua was the winner of the group, going 3-0 in the round and shutting out CT, 6-0. It was a close-run thing, but CT is now one of the 16 teams who will be part of next spring’s tournament.
And if Thunderbolts fans memories can go back a few years, they can recall several players from Taiwan who wore the red, white, and blue. Among them was a right hander named Yung-Chen Lu. Yung-Chen went 2-0 with the Thunderbolts in 2018 with a 4.20 ERA in 17 innings pitched. He appeared in nine games, starting one, and striking out 18 while walking five.
He went on to the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) in Taiwan where he played for the past three seasons with the Wei-Chuan Dragons. Overall in the League, the former Thunderbolt went 5-3 with a stingy 2.57 ERA in 80 games. The reliever threw 80.2 innings, walking 38, and striking out 73.
Yung-Chen was a member of the Chinese Taipei team that grabbed the spot in the WBC with the victory over Spain. He pitched in two games, going 3.2 innings, yielding three runs, walking one, and striking out five.
Congratulations to the Chinese Taipei team and to Yung-Chen Lu. The Thunderbolts hope he and team does well in the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
Additionally, Adam Lee—the T-Bolts link to all things baseball in Taiwan—has more. Back in November of 2024, Taiwan won the championship of the Premier12. The Premier 12 is an international baseball tournament staged by the World Baseball and Softball Confederation (WBSC) which features the 12 highest-ranked national baseball teams in the world.
The tournament dates back to 2015. It is often viewed as the third most important global baseball tournament following the WBC and the Summer Olympics.
The Thunderbolts were represented on Taiwan’s championship team by two former pitchers: En-Sih Huang and Kuan-Wei Chen. In 2015 for the Thunderbolts, En-Sih went 4-2 with a 2.12 ERA. His best outing came against the Baltimore Redbirds at Blair where he threw eight innings, allowing only two runs on five hits, walking two and striking out 13 en route to a 4-2 victory. He was named to the All-Star team where he pitched one inning, allowing no runs, no hits, no walks, and picking up one strikeout.
Kuan-Wei Chen also pitches in the CPBL, suiting up for Wei Chuan Dragons. In four seasons, he’s gone 14-12 with a 2.23 ERA, walking 50 and striking out 219! For the Thunderbolts in 2016, Kuan-Wei threw just one inning, giving up three runs on two hits, walking one and striking out one. He did not figure in the decision.
In the Premier12, he appeared in five games, giving up one run on four hits, walking none, and striking out eight in five innings.
It’s great to see former Thunderbolt pitchers doing well internationally and in their professional leagues. A huge thank you to Adam Lee for providing all the information on our Taiwan pitchers. May they continue to have success!
More on T-Bolt Banter to come. Stay tuned!