Taiwan’s Olympic softball team booked a spot in the quarter-finals of the 2008 Canada Cup International Women’s Fastpitch Tournament in Surrey, British Columbia, on Thursday with a 1-0 victory over the White Rock Renegades in their final first-round game.
Taiwan was able to scrape past their opponents on the strong pitching performance of their starter Lai Sheng-chung, who threw a complete game shutout, giving up only four hits and two walks and recording three strikeouts in the process.
The Taiwanese squad’s only run came in the seventh inning, which began with a lead-off single by catcher Tung Yun-chi. Huang Hui-wen then advanced Tung to second on a nicely executed bunt before Hsu Hsiu-ling was walked and Lai Meng-ting singled to load the bases.
Chen Miao-yi then stepped up to the plate and hit one deep to left field.
The sacrifice fly brought Tung home to give Taiwan a one-run lead that it would hold onto for the rest of the contest.
The victory gave Taiwan a 5-1 record and a second-place finish in their division. Their only loss was to Japan, which finished at the top of the White Pool with a perfect 6-0 record.
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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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