Taiwan upped their record in the Pool B baseball preliminaries to 2-1 at the Asian Games in Guangzhou yesterday afternoon with an easy 16-0 win over Hong Kong in five innings, courtesy of the mercy rule.
The win not only assured the defending champions a berth into Thursday’s semi-finals as the second-seeded team out of Pool B, but also most likely earned them a meeting against Pool A leaders Japan in a potential rematch of the 2006 Gold Medal Game.
“I am glad that the loss to South Korea did not keep us from advancing to the next round, even though it probably hurt us in terms of creating a less favorable semi-final matchup,” Taiwan head coach Yeh Chih-shien said after the game.
PHOTO: AFP
A win over South Korea in last Saturday’s opener would have led to an easier road to this year’s title game because the expected opponents would have been China, rather than the more powerful Japanese squad.
Hong Kong dug themselves into a big hole in the opening frame, with starter Chiu Chi Kam walking the first three Taiwanese hitters he faced, which set up a two-run home run by Lin Yi-chuan in what ended up being a three-run first inning.
The defending Asian Games champions doubled their lead in the second inning, this time on the strength of Chang Jien-ming’s two-run triple and Chang Tai-shang’s RBI single that made it 6-0, before a four-run third upped the lead to 10-0.
An error by the Hong Kong defense coupled with four deadly walks and a slew of base hits led to a six-run fourth, which was more than ample to induce the mercy rule after reliever Lo Ching-lung retired the side in the fifth to promptly end the onslaught.
Three different Taiwanese pitchers saw action yesterday, with starter Lin Ying-jeh tossing three innings of shutout ball to lead the way.
Offensively for the victors, the heart of the order consisting of Chang Tai-shan, Peng Cheng-min and Lin batted a combined six-for-12 with a pair of walks and eight RBIs.
Wildness on the part of the four Hong Kong pitchers took its toll as they issued 11 walks over four innings to match the number of hits they allowed.
“It’s nice to be able to pick up a relatively easy win, but our sights should really be set on winning the next two games to leave here with the gold,” Yeh said after the game.
His players will have today and tomorrow off before Thursday’s semi-final showdown.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
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
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but