Nee Fu-deh pitched eight-and-one-third innings of one-run ball with a career-high 13 strikeouts to lead the Chinatrust Whales past the dmedia T-Rex 6-1 at the Ilan County Baseball Stadium in Luodong on Thursday night and end a five-game losing skid for the marine creatures.
The soft-spoken lefty who has quietly emerged as one of the league’s top hurlers despite a mediocre 3-3 record, made a strong case on his behalf by taking a 6-0 shutout one out into the ninth before giving up the lone T-Rex run on a fielder’s choice to lose the shutout bid.
He was immediately replaced by reliever Huang Hong-ren in the interest of protecting his arm before Huang promptly retired the next two hitters to preserve the win.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
The contest began with the Whales needing only two innings to get to dmedia starter Willy Lebron of the Dominican Republic with four runs in a big second, highlighted by Lee Yi-wei’s two-run single to right to jump to a 4-0 lead.
Even though Lebron would not allow another run over the next four innings with a great second effort before being pulled at the start of the seventh, his offense did not exactly give him the run support he was looking for, because Nee had the dmedia hitters’ number.
Picking up the easy win was Nee, who improved to 3-3 for the year with an overpowering performance to top Lebron as the dmedia starter was dealt his second straight loss in as many games for allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits over six innings to remain winless at 0-2 for the season.
Bears 8, Bulls 2
The La New Bears made it four in a row with an impressive 8-2 road victory over the Sinon Bulls in Taichung to sweep the two-game set against their archrivals on Thursday evening.
Just like the Whales in Luodong, the Bears also had a shutout going late in the game before the Bulls’ Huang Chung-yi broke it up with a two-run home run in the bottom of the ninth to avoid what would have been back-to-back shutout losses at home. The Bulls were shut out 0-5 the night before.
After three scoreless innings, the rambunctious Bears finally broke through with four runs off Bulls starter Michael Connolly, thanks to a bases-clearing three-run double by Huang Long-yi and an RBI-single from Yu Jin-deh on the ensuing at-bat in a 4-0 game.
They would add another run in the sixth off Wang Guo-jin on a wild throw by the Bulls reliever that scored the Bears runner all the way from second before blowing the game wide open in the eighth with a pair of runs on an opposite-field triple by Chen Chin-fong.
Chen Fong-min’s run-scoring groundout in the ninth made it 8-0 in favor of the Bears before the Bulls put up two meaningless runs in the bottom of the inning to take away the shutout.
Bears starter Hsu Wen-hsiung was credited with his fifth win of the season for blanking the Bulls in six scoreless innings on five hits, while his counterpart Connolly was hit with the loss for digging himself into a four-run hole from which he never recovered.
The 2025 International Federation of Bodybuilding and Fitness (IFBB) Mr Universe Chinese Taipei competition began yesterday at Xinzhuang Gymnasium in New Taipei City, with more than 150 athletes showcasing their physiques. It is the first time in 16 years that the IFBB has held a competition in Taiwan, the last being the 2009 World Games in Kaohsiung. The professional bodybuilding contest is bringing together athletes from Taiwan and 16 other countries, including Malaysia, Japan, the US, France and Mexico. IFBB Chinese Taipei president Hsu An-chin said in an interview yesterday that the event came to Taiwan thanks to his lobbying efforts at last
Top seeds Alexander Zverev of Germany and American Coco Gauff on Tuesday advanced to the third round of the Canadian Open after both players were pushed hard by their opponents. World No. 3 Zverev, playing in his first match since his first-round loss at Wimbledon, was far from his best, but emerged with a 7-6 (8/6), 6-4 win over Adam Walton under the lights in Toronto. Momentum shifted firmly in Zverev’s favor when he won a 52-shot rally in the first set tiebreak and he sealed the win on a double fault by the Australian in the second set. “It was a very
Cycling great Marianne Vos won the opening stage of the women’s Tour de France with a brilliant late attack on Saturday. The 38-year-old Dutchwoman overtook her Visma–Lease a Bike teammate Pauline Ferrand-Prevot approaching the line, and then held off Mauritian rider Kim Le Court in the closing meters of a grueling uphill finish. Ferrand-Prevot looked set to win the stage, but the Frenchwoman attacked too early from 600m and could not withstand the late surge from Vos, who punched the air with her left fist as she crossed the line. Moments later, Vos hugged an exhausted-looking Ferrand-Prevot, the Paris-Roubaix winner. “I didn’t know if
TAIWANESE EXITS: Fellow Australian Christopher O’Connell joined Tristan Schoolkate as a winner following his 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Tseng Hsin-chun Australian qualifier Tristan Schoolkate on Monday dispatched rising Brazilian talent Joao Fonseca 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 at the ATP Toronto Masters, ensuring a breakthrough into the world top 100. The 24-year-old from Perth moved to 98th in the ongoing live rankings as he claimed his biggest career victory by knocking out the ATP NextGen champion from November last year. Schoolkate, son of a tennis coach, won his first match over a top-50 opponent on his sixth attempt as he ousted the world No. 49 teenager from Brazil. The qualifier played a quarter-final this month in Los Cabos and won through qualifying for his
RSS