Napoleon Calzado’s three-run homer capped a six-run eighth as the dmedia T-Rex broke a 3-3 deadlock wide open late in the game to top the Brother Elephants 9-3 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Wednesday night.
The win not only avenged a 10-5 loss to the Elephants in their week-opener on Tuesday, but also helped salvage a two-game split.
Hsieh “the Ugly” Jia-shien also homered with a pinch-hit three-run blast off game-loser Wang Jing-li to up his home run total to eight for the year.
PHOTO: WANG YI-SUNG, TAIPEI TIMES
All nine of the T-Rex runs came by way of the long ball as Huang Shih-hao and Chen Keh-fan added a two-run shot and a towering solo bomb earlier in the contest on a night where the ball seemed as big as a grapefruit for the T-Rex hitters.
Picking up his third win of the season with six innings of sound relief was Chang Hsien-chih, who allowed a run on a half-dozen hits with a pair of walks to beat his counterpart Wang, who served up six runs on two homers during the decisive eighth to drop his second game of the season.
Bears 8, Bulls 7
The La New Bears edged past the Sinon Bulls at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Wednesday evening on the strength of a bases-loaded walk drawn by Shih Chih-wei in the bottom of the eighth.
The home Bears capitalized on a deadly walk issued by a rattled Lin Chi-wei as the Bulls rookie reliever was asked to intentionally walk Chen Chin-fong to load up the bases with two outs in an attempt to avoid the league’s No. 1 RBI man. He failed to finish off Shih, which would have ended the inning.
Other than the anti-climactic ending, the game was a classic seesaw battle that saw the Bears squander two sizable leads by committing four errors that allowed the Bulls to rally for four runs in the fifth to tie the game at 4-4 and three more runs in the seventh to force a 7-7 tie after the Bears offense had reclaimed a 7-4 lead.
The errors that led to five unearned runs for the Bulls also cost Mike Johnson the win and a chance to extend his league-leading win total to 14 as the Bears staff ace was pulled in the seventh, but had to settle for a no-decision after the Bulls had tied the game.
Credited with the eventual victory was Bears reliever Lee Fong-hua, who allowed a hit over two shutout innings.
Whales 2, Lions 0
Behind seven spectacular innings of one-hit ball by Du Chang-wei, the Chinatrust Whales scored a rare road win in Tainan on Tuesday by taming the President Lions 2-0 to kick off the week on a high note.
The Tainan native, who has not lost a game in 11 career starts at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium, allowed only two runners to reach base safely over seven sharp frames before handing the game to fellow reliever Lorenzo Barcelo, who held the home Lions scoreless over the final two innings to keep the shutout intact.
Tagged with the tough loss was Lions starter Louis Pote, whose bid to pocket his eleventh win of the year fell short as his offense failed to back him up.
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Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
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