Clutch hitting with runners in scoring position lifted Team Taiwan past the United States in a 4-2 win on Thursday as the home side finished out the round-robin preliminary round of the 2006 World University Softball Championship in Tainan with a perfect 5-0 record.
Lai Meng-ting went 2-for-3 against a tough American pitching that had given up only three runs over a four-game span, each hit delivering an RBI for her club, to account for half of the offensive production in a game. Team Taiwan also made the most of the five hits it smashed by plating four runs (two earned) for the game, thanks to a pair of costly errors by the American defense.
Both of the errors committed by the US led to a Taiwanese score; the first allowing Taiwan to score its second run of game in the bottom of the first and the second giving the runner on first a chance to sprint all the way home for Taiwan's third run of the contest in the bottom of the second inning.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CTUSF
The home team might have been outhit by the American ladies as far as the hit total was concerned (8-to-5), but two of them found the sweet spots in the outfield for a pair of rare triples against the defending champs.
The game began with Team USA claiming a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first when Lindsay Schutzler led off the game with a walk from Taiwanese starter Wu Chia-yen and scored two batters later on a double-steal that worked to perfection.
That would be the only lead that the Team USA enjoyed as Taiwan answered with two runs of its own in the bottom of the first on consecutive triples by Chen Miao-yi and Lai to tie the game at 1-all before the first error by American shortstop Courtney Bures promptly made it 2-1 in favor of Taiwan.
After the second error by the US scored the third run of the game for Taiwan in the bottom of the second to make it 3-1, Team USA would rally with slugger Cambria Miranda's solo homer off Wu to trail the home team 3-2.
That was as close as Team USA got as Lai knocked in an insurance run with an RBI single to seal the win.
Wu was credited with the win for tossing 3-2/3 innings of two-run ball on five hits, before fellow reliever Lai Sheng-jung followed with 3-1/3 innings of scoreless relief to secure the victory for Taiwan.
Taking the tough loss for the US was starter Brianne McGowan, who allowed three runs (only one earned) on as many hits in two innings of play, falling victim to a defense that committed two fatal errors in a losing cause.
Taiwan 15, Thailand 0
Wednesday's match between Taiwan and Thailand was all Taiwan from the get go as it struck for seven first-inning runs on the strength of four hits and an error by the Thai defense, before the 15-0 blowout ended after the fourth on the basis of the mercy rule.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier