Chen Chih-wei’s sacrifice fly to right with a runner at the corner scored the tie-breaking run in the top of the ninth as the Sinon Bulls held on to edge past the Brother Elephants 4-3 at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night.
The win not only helped the Bulls bounce back from a pair of losses on Saturday in a sweep of the day-night doubleheader, but also salvaged what would have been a tough defeat by the Elephants as they squandered a two-run lead during the game and fell behind before rallying back to claim the victory.
Chang Jien-ming’s two-run blast off Elephant starter Lin Yu-ching got the Bulls on the board for a quick 2-0 advantage in the top of the third.
The score stood until the fourth before the men in the golden uniforms answered with a run in the bottom of the fifth on Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s double to lead the inning, and scored three batters later on a clutch two-out single by Chen Jiang-ho that made it 2-1.
The Elephants struck again for a pair of runs in the sixth to take a 3-2 lead, highlighted by a perfectly executed hit-and-run play by Chang Chih-hao, with speedster Chang Chih-wei at first and an erroneous throw by the Sinon defense that allowed Chang Chih-wei to score all the way from first.
However, the diehard Bulls simply would not go down easily as they scored another run in the eighth courtesy of the second error on the Elephant defense to notch the game up at 3-all to set up their ninth-inning rally.
Things looked good for the Elephants after starter Lin dodged a couple of bullets in the sixth and seventh when he escaped a bases-loaded jam and a two on-with-one out situation unharmed respectively to lead it 3-2.
However, the lead proved short-lived as the Elephants self-destructed by giving up the tying run on an error in the eighth to lose the lead and eventually the game in the ninth.
Picking up the win was reliever Lin Keh-chien, who entered with two outs in the eighth to keep the Elephants at bay before retiring the final three Brother batters in the ninth for his first win of the year.
Taking the loss was his counterpart Guan Da-yuan, who gave up the winning run in the ninth to drop to a 5-2 mark for the season.
SSC Napoli will have to wait one more week to seal the Serie A title after on Sunday being held to a goalless draw at Parma, while closest rivals Inter drew 2-2 in a dramatic game with SS Lazio. Antonio Conte’s team stayed one point ahead of Inter and were unfortunate not to win after twice striking the woodwork through Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa and Matteo Politano, while Scott McTominay also had a free-kick tipped onto the crossbar. The away side thought they would be handed a chance to take the points from the penalty spot in the 96th minute when David Neres
Omar Marmoush’s stunning long-range strike on Tuesday upstaged Kevin de Bruyne on the Manchester City great’s Etihad farewell. Marmoush let fly from about 30m to put City ahead in their 3-1 win against AFC Bournemouth in the Premier League. The victory moved Pep Guardiola’s team up to third in the standings and left qualification for the UEFA Champions League in their own hands heading into the last round of the season. “It’s really important. To be in the Champions League after what happened [this season] will be really nice,” the City manager said. De Bruyne was making his final home appearance for City before
TIGHT FINISH: Napoli only needed to do the same as or better than Inter, who won their game against Como 2-0 on the same day, leaving Napoli with a one-point lead The two players who Antonio Conte wanted more than any others secured Napoli their second Serie A title in three years on Friday. Scott McTominay scored with an acrobatic bicycle kick before halftime and Romelu Lukaku doubled the lead with a solo goal after the break in the decisive 2-0 home win over Cagliari. Conte became the first coach to win the Italian championship with three different teams. “Everyone contributed to this — but the coach most of all,” Napoli captain Giovanni Di Lorenzo said. “Napoli needed him to get back on top. He’s phenomenal.” Comparing it to his three Serie A titles won
The journey of Taiwan’s badminton mixed doubles duo Ye Hong-wei and Nicole Chan at the Malaysia Masters in Kuala Lumpur came to an end in the semi-finals yesterday after they suffered a 2-0 loss to China’s Feng Yanzhe and Huang Dongping. Ye, 25, and Chan, 20, teamed up last year and are currently ranked No. 23 in the world. The Taiwanese shuttlers took on China’s second seeds in the mixed doubles event, but proved no match for Feng and Huang, losing the match 10-21, 7-21. In the first half of the first game, the pairings were neck and neck at 6-7 until Ye