Liu Fu-hao's sacrifice-fly with men at the corners scored the game-winner in the top of the ninth as the President Lions beached the Chinatrust Whales 2-1 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Thursday to sweep the two-game series for the week.
The speedy outfielder, who entered the game with an impressive six-game hitting streak, managed to drive a pitch from the Whales' Du Chang-wei deep enough to outfield to bring home the game-clincher, even though his hitting streak came to a halt with a 0-for-3 outing on the night.
"I'm glad I was able to contribute, even though the hitting streak had to end tonight," Liu said after the game
It was a big win for the defending champs not only in term of it being their first series sweep of the season, but also because it left them top of the league standings.
The classic pitchers' duel between foreign starters Gregory Wiltshire of Australia for the Lions and Steve Watkins of the US for the Whales saw both offenses held to one lone hit through the first four frames in a scoreless tie before the Lions came through with a two-out single by Kao Chih-kang to lead it 1-0 in the top of the fifth.
The lead lasted less than an inning as the Whales answered with the equalizer the bottom of the same inning when Kuo Dai-yong also delivered a clutch single with two outs and men on first and second to tie the game at 1-all.
That was all the scoring that either team would have with Wiltshire standing strong through the sixth and Watkins topping out after the eighth on 114 pitches before handing the ball to his bullpen.
As for the Whales, Watkins' four-hit gem over eight brilliant innings did not materialize into a win, while Du took the loss for giving up the game-winner to Liu.
BEARS 8, BULLS 0
Behind a strong performance by US southpaw Andrew Lorraine, the La New Bears blanked the Sinon Bulls in an overpowering 8-0 shutout on the road Thursday evening to salvage a series-split with the Bulls in Taichung.
Following a decent campaign last year with the Bears during which he finished with a 4-1 record in eight starts, Lorraine was invited to return as the featured lefty on the La New rotation.?And he more than answered the call on the night with seven scoreless innings of six-hit ball while fanning five to earn his first win of the season.
Offensively for the Bears, Lin Chih-sheng and Tseng Hao-jui each connected for three hits to account for half of the dozen rung up against a shorthanded Sinon pitching staff.
The Bulls had their scoring chances against Lorraine with runners placed in scoring position on several occasions. But with a combined hitting of 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position, none of the runners managed to make it home to break up the shutout.
Taking the loss on behalf of the Bulls was starter Shen Fu-ren who cruised through the fourth with minimal trouble before giving up a pair of runs during the fifth and sixth en route to his first loss of the year.
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with