The President Lions stormed their way into their second-straight Taiwan Series with a 13-2 rout of the Macoto Cobras in Game 3 on Sunday night, completing a sweep of the best-of-five Playoff Series against the first-half of the season champs.
The 4,000-plus fans on hand were treated to a dynamite display of explosive offense as the Lions racked up a record-high 16 hits in a postseason contest for 13 runs to chase the serpents out of the ballpark in convincing fashion.
Leading the Lions attack with his red-hot bat was Kao Guo-ching, who lit up the Tainan sky with a monstrous three-run homer and a clutch two-run single with two outs on a 3-for-4 effort to drive in a record-high five RBIs on the night. The fourth-year first baseman has blossomed into the premier power hitter in the league with an incredible season that saw him connect for 152 base hits and 20 homers, both career-highs.
It was only fitting that Kao finished off the game with an unassisted out at first after he fielded a grounder from the final Cobras hitter.
"Wow! It's been one heck of a run for us ... Now we must do it again against the Bears to cap it all off," Kao said after the game.
The Lions' whipping of the Cobras began with Kao's two-run single with two outs in the bottom of the third to give the hosts a quick 2-0 lead. The serpents answered with a run of their own in the top of the fourth, courtesy of Hsieh "The Ugly" Jia-shien's solo shot off Lions starter Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen.
Then came the three-run blast by Kao in the fifth off Cobras starter Andy Van Hekken that upped the Lions lead to 5-1. The Lions then took control with a five-run sixth, highlighted by Chen Lien-hong's three-run opposite-field homer that cleared the right-field wall.
Kuo Dai-chi's two-run zinger following Wang Tzu-song's RBI double in the eighth concluded the scoring. The Lions swarmed a ribbon-covered field after Kao made the final out of the game to celebrate their series-clinching win.
Picking up the big win for the Lions was Pan, who allowed a run on six hits over five innings to record his second career postseason win.
Tagged with the lopsided loss for the Cobras was Van Hekken who lasted one out into the fifth, giving up five runs on six hits while striking out six and walking three. Three of the five runs he allowed were unearned as the Cobras defense committed four errors.
Taiwan Series
Next up for the victorious Lions will be Game 1 in the 2007 Taiwan Series on Saturday in a rematch against the defending champs, the La New Bears.
It will be an all-south Fall Classic this year with the Kaoh-siung-based Bears hosting the first two games in a best-of-seven series against the Tainan Lions.
Tainan TSG Hawks slugger Steven Moya, who is leading the CPBL in home runs, has withdrawn from this weekend’s All-Star Game after the unexpected death of his wife. Moya’s wife began feeling severely unwell aboard a plane that landed at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Friday evening. She was rushed to a hospital, but passed away, the Hawks said in a statement yesterday. The franchise is assisting Moya with funeral arrangements and hopes fans who were looking forward to seeing him at the All-Star Game can understand his decision to withdraw. According to Landseed Medical Clinic, whose staff attempted to save Moya’s wife,
Wallabies coach Joe Schmidt yesterday backed Nick Champion de Crespigny to be the team’s “roving scavenger” after handing him a shock debut in the opening Test against the British and Irish Lions Test in Brisbane. Hard man Champion de Crespigny, who spent three seasons at French side Castres before moving to the Western Force this year, is to get his chance tomorrow with first-choice blindside flanker Rob Valetini not fully fit. His elevation is an eye-opener, preferred to Tom Hooper, but Schmidt said he had no doubt about his abilities. “I keep an eye on the Top 14 having coached there many years
ON A KNEE: In the MLB’s equivalent of soccer’s penalty-kicks shoot-out, the game was decided by three batters from each side taking three swings each off coaches Kyle Schwarber was nervous. He had played in Game 7 of the MLB World Series and homered for the US in the World Baseball Classic (WBC), but he had never walked up to the plate in an All-Star Game swing-off. No one had. “That’s kind of like the baseball version of a shoot-out,” Schwarber said after homering on all three of his swings, going down to his left knee on the final one, to overcome a two-homer deficit. That held up when Jonathan Aranda fell short on the American League’s final three swings, giving the National League a 4-3 swing-off win after
NBA team owners on Tuesday authorized league officials to begin an in-depth analysis regarding expansion, but NBA commissioner Adam Silver said there was no timetable for any changes. The NBA board of governors meeting in Las Vegas marked the first time team owners officially discussed expanding the league beyond 30 teams, but Silver said they went no deeper than requesting more research into the possibility. “There is a significant step now in that we’re now engaging in this in-depth analysis,” Silver said. “It’s something we weren’t prepared to do before, but beyond that, it’s really day one of that analysis. In terms
RSS