Taiwan's Chinatrust Whales were no match for South Korea in Wednesday night's exhibition action for the 2008 IBAF Final Olympic Qualification Tournament at Douliou as they lost 8-1 to an outstanding South Korean squad.
With South Korea opting to arrive in Taiwan early to play three friendly matches against the Chinese Professional Baseball League teams in preparation for the upcoming Final Olympic Qualification Tournament in Taichung (March 7 to March 14), the game against the Whales provided Team Taiwan with an excellent opportunity to scout on perhaps their toughest opponent in the entire tournament.
And South Korea did not disappoint, sending Kim Kwang-hyun from the SK Wyverns of South Korea's Korean Baseball Organization to the mound and humbling the marine creatures with an impressive one-hit effort from the lefty ace over four scoreless innings.
After Kim, four different South Korean hurlers entered the game to equally split the five remaining innings of play, allowing the lone run in the game for the Whales on a run-scoring fielding error by the shortstop with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, completely humbling the Whales.
Standing opposite Kim was Whales rookie starter Kao Jing-min, who started the game strong with a pair of scoreless innings before running into some trouble in the third by give up three runs on as many hits to fall behind 0-3.
He would last two batters into the sixth before being pulled on an eight-hit outing.
The South Korea pitchers kept the Whales hitters in check with one lone hit through the first four frames.
Even though they would end up with five hits on the night, none of the hits managed to knock in any runs as South Korea's pitching yielded no more than one hit in any single inning.
"It's hard to come up with any runs when the offense is limited to just five hits, none of which are strung together," Whales manager Hsieh Chang-hen said after the game, praising the solid effort by the entire South Korea pitching staff.
Next up for South Korea will be the dmedia T-Rex (formerly the Macoto Cobras) for its second match in the three-game exhibition series at Taichung on Sunday at 1:05pm. Tuesday night's meeting at 6:35pm with the Sinon Bulls is also scheduled for Taichung.
MARRED FINAL: As most of Senegalese players walked off the pitch after a controversial decision, some supporters threw objects and attempted to get onto the pitch Senegal on Sunday won the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) as Pape Gueye’s extra-time winner sunk hosts Morocco 1-0 after a chaotic final that saw the eventual champions storm off the pitch late in the game. Brahim Diaz could have won the trophy for Morocco with a controversial spot-kick in the 24th minute of added time at the end of normal time as ugly scenes broke out in the stands. However, Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy easily saved the weak attempted “Panenka” chip by the Real Madrid winger, who was clearly distracted by the long delay that followed the penalty award.
James Harden on Friday scored 31 points and came up big in overtime to help the Los Angeles Clippers erase a double-digit deficit on the way to a 121-117 NBA victory over the Toronto Raptors. Harden scored 16 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Clippers pushed their wining steak to five games despite the absence of star Kawhi Leonard with a sprained right ankle. The Clippers trailed by 11 entering the fourth quarter, but Harden drilled a pair of free-throws with 1:24 left in regulation to tie it and after misses from both teams, they went to
Qatar’s Nasser al-Attiyah on Saturday secured his sixth Dakar Rally car title in Saudi Arabia with Luciano Benavides scraping home by two seconds to claim the motorbike title. “We’ve worked very hard since last year. I might not be showing much emotion yet, but it’s there, deep down. We are so happy to win,” al-Attiyah said at the finish. Al-Attiyah, at the wheel of a Dacia, only had to avoid a final day slip-up to top the podium after bringing his career tally of stage wins to 50 on Friday. The 55-year-old, who took clay pigeon shooting bronze at the
Tobias Harris on Monday scored 25 points as the Detroit Pistons held off the Boston Celtics to score a 104-103 victory in their top-of-the-table Eastern Conference showdown. Harris was one of four Detroit players to finish in double figures, with Jalen Duren adding 18 points and point guard Cade Cunningham scoring 16 points with 14 assists. The win sees Detroit extend their lead at the top of the Eastern Conference to 31-10, 5.5 games ahead of second-placed Boston, who fell to 26-16 with the defeat. Jaylen Brown led the Celtics scoring with 32 points and almost snatched victory in the
RSS