The Evil Empire of High School Baseball in Taiwan
Ping-Jen Senior High School wins its eighth Black Panther Banner championship in the tournament’s 13th edition
On Sunday, Ping-Jen Senior High School defeated Lo-Tung Vocational High School1 4-1 at Xinzhuang Stadium to win the 2025 Black Panther Banner national senior high school championship. With this title win, Ping-Jen has now collected a total of eight national championships since the inaugural tournament in 2013.
Established with aspirations of rivaling Japan’s Koshien tournaments,2 the Black Panther Banner is the premier high school national championship in Taiwan. Unlike Koshien, however, Black Panther features an extremely top-heavy field: Ping-Jen has been the perennial favorite, with Ku-Pao Home Economics and Kao-Yuan Vocational being the only two other schools that have won the championship.
Ping-Jen was the runner-up for three of the five years in which it did not win the national championship, losing to Ku-Pao twice, who has won a total of four times.
All-star alumni
Ping-Jen has produced countless top-tier Taiwanese players over the years, many of whom are active in MiLB, NPB, and CPBL. Detroit Tigers prospect infielder Hao-Yu Lee, Los Angeles Dodgers prospect outfielder Ching-Hsien Ko, San Francisco Giants prospect right-hander Nien-Hsi Yang, and Athletics prospect left-hander Wei-En Lin all attended Ping-Jen.
Jo-Hsi Hsu, who recently signed with the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks to a three-year, USD 9.6 million deal, was a 2019 graduate. Nippon-Ham Fighters right-hander Ruei-Yang Gu Lin graduated in 2018. Both pitchers were posted to NPB teams in high-profile offseason signings in international free agency.
Domestically, TSG Hawks catcher Jhao-Yuan Jhang, Rakuten Monkeys infielder Li Lin, CTBC Brothers star shortstop Kun-Yu Chiang are among the many players hailing from Ping-Jen.
Future stars to watch
If the past is any indication, several Ping-Jen future stars are likely to go pro within the next few years, with even a couple of them signing with NPB or MLB teams. To highlight just two:
Yi-Che Tseng, RHP/OF: The two-way player batted .636 in the tournament. He has been dubbed the “Ohtani of Ping-Jen” and represented Taiwan in the U-15 Asian Baseball Championship in August.
Chen-Lung Tsai, RHP: Named the all-tournament pitcher, Tsai delivered his first shutout win in the semifinal round against Kao-Yuan to help Ping-Jen clinch the title game berth. The senior reached 89.5 mph in that game and recorded a 93.8 mph fastball in September. In addition to the fastball, Tsai commands a slider, forkball, changeup, curveball, and sweeper in his deep arsenal. He has already expressed interest of pursuing baseball abroad.
The underdogs from Yilan
Lo-Tung Vocational, based in Yilan County on the northeastern coast of Taiwan, had its deepest tournament run in school history. It had never gone beyond the round of 32 before this year, so the second-place finish represented its best performance since joining the tournament in 2019.
Entering the final game, Ping-Jen was already the clear favorite after beating defending champion Ku-Pao in the round of 16. A close game in the semifinals against Kao-Yuan brought out a heroic performance from ace Chen-Lung Tsai, who completed a shutout and allowed just two hits.
Lo-Tung Vocational showed off its strong bats in the semifinals, scoring 11 runs on 13 hits against NTPEHS. But against Ping-Jen’s pitching staff, Lo-Tung’s offense was limited to a run. Despite the loss, Lo-Tung’s cinderella run this year has spurred momentum in Yilan County’s excitement for baseball.3
The future of Taiwanese baseball does not rest with the likes of Ping-Jen or Ku-Pao, the evil empires that are expected to win year after year. It rests with the underdogs who hold out hope and once in a while surprise themselves and the nation, and luckily there are still numerous benefactors who root for the underdog.4 Ultimately, the glorious possibility of David slaying Goliath is what keeps fans watching.
Other news
Former MLB and KBO southpaw Wei-Chung Wang, who entered free agency after being left off the Wei Chuan Dragons’ 60-man protected roster, is rumored to be considered by the KBO’s Lotte Giants. Shunsuke Suzuki has agreed to re-sign with Fubon Guardians after a couple of KBO teams attempted to poach him. The Taiwanese University Baseball League (UBL) is underway, and NTTU defeated powerhouse CCU 5-0, featuring junior left-hander Hung-Yen Wang’s 95-pitch Maddux shutout.
Ping-Jen is sometimes transliterated as Pingjen or Pingzhen, and Lo-Tung is sometimes transliterated as Luodong.
Koshien, of course, is the annual national high school tournament that has been described as “March Madness meets the World Series” and is a longstanding Japanese cultural institution. At the end of the month, both Ping-Jen and Lo-Tung will both play in an exhibition series with two Japanese teams made of players who competed in this year’s Koshien.
Yilan’s Luodong Sports Park Baseball Field, a venue that has not been in use since power went out during a live CPBL game in 2016, is being renovated and could be used for spring training games as early as March.
Lo-Tung Vocational’s baseball program is sponsored by a cement tycoon’s private foundation. Perhaps (hopefully?) other tycoons and billionaires will soon find financing high school baseball programs a cheaper and more rewarding venture than owning a money-losing professional team.