Taiwan qualified for the quarter-finals of the Baseball World Cup with a 10-0 hammering of listless Panama at the Intercontinental stadium in Taichung yesterday.
A sixth-inning, five-run annihilation of the Panamanian pitcher ended the contest, although the game petered out after another two runs, including the game's sole home run in the ninth inning.
Before that Taiwan accumulated runs in the 2nd, 3rd and 5th innings with help from poor pitching -- Lin Chih-sheng made it home twice off hits by Peng Cheng-min after being walked -- and fielding by their foes.
The result means that Taiwan are virtually assured of avoiding the marauding Cuban side in the quarter-final phase.
In other games in Group A, the USA kept pace with Taiwan at the top of the group after beating winless South Africa 4-2. Third-placed Japan virtually sealed a quarter-final spot with a 10-0 hammering of Italy, while Mexico destroyed Spain 19-1. A likely win over Spain by Japan this afternoon would mean the fourth quarter-final spot will go down to percentages for the winner of the Mexico-Italy game and Panama if they defeat South Africa.
In Group B, Cuba continued their undefeated run with an easy seven-inning, 11-1 defeat of winless Thailand, while Australia stayed in second place by narrowly beating Germany 4-2 after the Germans made a late charge.
Canada and the Netherlands made a big step toward the quarter-finals by beating Venezuela 6-3 and South Korea 5-1 respectively. Canada, the Netherlands and South Korea will now vie for third and fourth, although the Netherlands will struggle as their last game is against the relentless Cubans.
The top four teams from each group will advance to the quarterfinals. The final will be held on Sunday.
TODAY'S GAMES
12pm:
Japan v Spain (Taichung)
Mexico v Italy (Intercontinental, Taichung)
Cuba v Netherlands (Tianmu, Taipei City)
Germany v South Korea (Sinjhuang, Taipei County)
6pm:
TAIWAN v USA (Intercontinental)
Panama v South Africa (Taichung)
Canada v Australia (Tianmu)
Venezuela v Thailand (Sinjhuang)
Inter’s defense of their Italian Serie A title was hit with a setback on Sunday as they lost 1-0 at home to AS Roma, while Scott McTominay netted a brace as SSC Napoli beat Torino 2-0 to go top of the table. No fixtures were played on Friday or Saturday because of the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome, meaning the full round of Serie A matches took place on Sunday and yesterday. Matias Soule’s first-half strike for Roma knocked Inter off top spot earlier in the day before new Napoli opened up a three-point buffer with victory in Sunday’s
FOCUS: ‘We came out here with a goal in mind ... to keep our foot on their throat and on their neck, and continue to play 48 minutes of basketball,’ Donovan Mitchell said The Cleveland Cavaliers on Monday thrashed the Miami Heat to cruise into the next round of the NBA playoffs as the Golden State Warriors battled past the Houston Rockets 109-106 to move to the brink of a series victory. After pounding Miami 124-87 in game three on Saturday, No.1 Eastern Conference seeds Cleveland once again piled on the misery for their outclassed opponents with a crushing 138-83 victory to complete a 4-0 series win. The 55-point drubbing was the largest series-clinching victory in NBA playoff history and sets up a series against either the Indiana Pacers or Milwaukee Bucks in
Shuttler Lin Chun-yi yesterday kept Taiwan on the board as they faced their first major challenge of the group stage after marching into the last eight at the Sudirman Cup Finals in Xiamen, China. Taiwan were losing 3-1 to South Korea as of press time last night, with only the men’s doubles match remaining. Taiwan and four-time champions South Korea have already progressed to the quarter-finals, after Taiwan on Monday blanked the Czech Republic 5-0 without giving up a single game. Before last night’s tie, Taiwan were undefeated in Group B, with a 9-1 match record, ahead of South Korea, who, although also
A man fell from the 6.4m-high Clemente Wall in right field at PNC Park in Pittsburgh during Wednesday night’s game between the Pirates and the Chicago Cubs. Right after Andrew McCutchen hit a two-run double in the seventh inning to put the Pirates ahead 4-3, players began waving frantically for medical personnel and pointing to the man, who had fallen onto the warning track. The fan was tended to for approximately five minutes by members of both the Pirates and Cubs training staffs as well as PNC personnel before being removed from the field on a cart. The team issued a statement shortly
RSS