Kao Guo-ching’s two-run double with two outs capped a four-run sixth as the Uni-President Lions overcame a two-run deficit to top the Sinon Bulls 10-7 in Taichung on Wednesday to close out their regular season on a high note.
What had been billed as a pitchers’ duel between the Lions Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen and Yang Jien-fu turned into a slugfest from the get go with both starters giving up four runs in the first inning.
The Lions broke a 4-all tie in the top of the fifth on a sacrifice-fly by Liu Fu-hao to lead 5-4 only to see Du Du surrender three in the bottom of the same inning to trail the home Bulls 5-7.
In came RBI-man Tilson Brito who drove in a pair of runs in the sixth with a hard shot to left before Kao followed with his clutch double to put the Lions ahead for good. The two runs driven in by Brito were his 101st and 102nd of the season, making him the first player to have back-to-back seasons with 100 or more RBIs in league history.
Du Du picked up his 12th win of the season who allowed a season-high seven runs (five earned) on a dozen hits over five innings but still managed to win.
BEARS 12, ELEPHANTS 5
The La New Bears bounced back nicely from a loss to the Brother Elephants on Tuesday with a big 12-5 win in Game 2 on Wednesday in Kaohsiung to salvage a two-game split against the Elephants.
The home Bears found themselves down 2-4 after Wang Sheng-wei’s two-run homer left the ballpark in the top of the third before Lin Chih-sheng took matters into his own hands with a solo shot off Elephants starter Tseng Jia-min to bring the Bears back into the game.
Gary Burnham’s tenth round-tripper of the year eventually tied the game at 4-all and the Bears went on to win 12-5.
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
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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
A soccer jersey carrying a national map including disputed Western Sahara has become a hot commodity in Morocco after a diplomatic dispute with Algeria. Retailers said RS Berkane jerseys have been flying off the shelves after a Confederation of African Football (CAF) Cup match against Algerian club USM Alger was canceled last month over the jerseys. “We are overwhelmed by the influx of messages and requests,” said Brahim Rabii, representative of the official RS Berkane jersey distributor. Algeria broke off diplomatic relations with Morocco in 2021, partly over the issue of Western Sahara. The former Spanish colony is largely controlled by Morocco, but claimed