Taipower made it two wins in a row by topping the Sichuan Dragons 14-2 in seven innings on the second day of the 2012 Cross-strait Championship at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu yesterday afternoon to remain unbeaten at 2-0.
Starter Wang Tsong-hao shook off a sub-par first inning, in which he served up a pair of runs on three hits, by pitching one-hit ball over the next four shutout frames to pocket the win.
The lefty out of Pingtung’s Mei Ho Senior High School, who joined Taipower in 2009, has quietly taken over the distinction as the staff ace for skipper Chen Tseh-hsiang with a repertoire of pitches that include a fastball, a slider and a wicked changeup.
Doing the damage offensively for Taipower, who blew the game wide open with an eight-run fourth, were Huang Chang-en and Chen Chih-kao, who collected three hits apiece to lead an attack that rang up 16 hits off three different Chinese hurlers, highlighted by Huang’s inside-the-park home run off reliever Zhang Wei in the top of the fifth.
Also starring was Shih Bo-yong, whose fourth-inning double helped jumpstart the Taipower scoring spree in the inning.
As for the Dragons, things looked rather promising over the first three innings as they answered a two-run first by Taipower with two runs of their own in the bottom of the same inning to tie the game at 2-2.
However, starter Wang Meng-hao failed to build on his early success by allowing the pressure to get to him as he served up three straight base hits in the fourth to suffer the loss.
Taipei City 8, Tianjin Lions 5
Taipei City won their game against the Tianjin Lions 8-5 at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City early yesterday afternoon to improve their record to 2-0 in this year’s tournament.
Starter Chiang Cheng-fong pitched seven innings of four-run ball on eight hits to pick up the victory for the home team.
The loss was charged against his counterpart, Lee Chih-lang, who lasted only three innings with five allowed runs on six hits to set his team back.
The Lions actually led the game briefly 2-1 with two runs in the second, before Lee served up four runs in the third to give the hosts the lead for good.
Yesterday’s other scores:
‧ New Taipei City 2, Jiangsu
Hopestars 0, in Tianmu
‧ Taiwan Cooperative Bank 3,
Guangdong Leopards 0
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