Jim Magrane tossed eight strong innings of one-run ball, Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min went a solid three-for-four with a pair of doubles and an RBI, and the Brother Elephants defeated the Sinon Bulls 4-1 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon.
The win avenged back-to-back losses to the Bulls on the two previous nights, avoiding a three-game sweep at the hands of the league-leaders.
The men in the golden uniforms wasted little time getting to Sinon starter Lindsay Gulin with consecutive doubles by “Chia Chia” and Chou Si-Chi to plate their first run of the game in the bottom of the second.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES
DOUBLE
Even though the Bulls answered in the top of the third when Chen Chih-wei led off the inning with a double and scored two batters later on Chang Jien-ming’s RBI-single up the middle to tie the game up at 1-1, that was as close as they got.
RIGHTY
American right-hander Magrane quickly settled in and shut down the Sinon attack the rest of the way by allowing only two more hits through the eighth to give his offense a chance to help him win his league-leading third game of the season.
The go-ahead run for the Elephants came in the bottom of the fourth when Huang Shih-hao came up big with a single to right-center to score Peng, who smoked a double down the third-base line to lead off the inning and advanced to third one out later.
Peng and Huang would drive in one more run each in the fifth, making it 4-1 in favor of the Elephants, a lead they held all the way to the final out of the contest.
Suffering his first loss of the season was Gulin, who lasted only 4-1/3 innings with four allowed runs on nine hits in a disappointing outing.
His offense did not exactly stand behind him, scoring only one run off the stingy Elephant pitching to lose one long before the final out in the ninth.
BEARS 8 LIONS 3
Five runs in the top of the fourth broke a 1-all tie wide open to help the La New Bears trip up the Uni-President Lions in an 8-3 final at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium yesterday.
The victory clinched the three-game weekend series for the Bears who had been roughed up by the Lions the night before in a 9-1 loss.
The top of the order did all the damage for the Bears with Shih Yen-wei, Yu Jin-deh and Lin Chih-sheng accounting for seven combined hits with three RBIs on the night, which easily made a winner out of starter Christopher Lee Mason.
The 25-year-old from North Carolina improved to 2-1 for the year, pitching six solid innings of one-run ball.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set