BUSAN (Yonhap News) -- The South Korean baseball champions competing in a continental club tournament aren‘t taking their upcoming opponents from Taiwan lightly, their manager said Thursday, especially after the Taiwanese hammered a Chinese team earlier in the day.

Ryu Joong-il, manager of the Samsung Lions, watched the Lamigo Monkeys of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League pound the China Stars from the China Baseball League 15-1 to kick off the Asia Series in Busan.

The game ended after seven innings under the “mercy rule,” which calls off games when a team is ahead by 10 runs or more after seven.

The Lions, the 2012 champions of the Korea Baseball Organization, will face the Monkeys at 6 p.m. Friday for their first Asia Series match. And as the Monkeys belted three long balls Thursday, Ryu said his pitchers should be wary of Taiwanese hitters.

“They have some powerful hitters who can also make good contact,” observed Ryu, who visited Sajik Stadium with his scouts while Samsung coaches ran the practice at another ballpark.

Lin Chih-Sheng, Chen Chin-Feng and Shin Chih-Wei each hit a home run. Before the Asia Series began, Ryu had said Lin, a power-hitting shortstop and a fixture on the Taiwanese national team, was the Monkeys‘ most dangerous player.