The Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball doubled up on the Canberra Cavalry of the Australian Baseball League (ABL) in a 6-3 final at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon to improve to 2-0 in this year’s play.
The win not only kept the newly crowned NBP champions unbeaten, but also earned them a ticket for tomorrow night’s semi-final contest.
Their opposition will be the winner of the final preliminary game between the Uni-President Lions of Taiwan’s Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) and the Samsung Lions of South Korea’s Korea Baseball Organization. The game was still being played at the time of going to press.
DOUBLE
Shota Koseki’s bases-clearing double off Cavalry starter Chris Motta scored all three base runners for the Golden Eagles in the top of the second to get the Japanese on the board.
The best from the land of the samurais tacked on another run in the third and the fifth that made it 5-0.
FIGHTBACK
The Australians fought back with three runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth when Robbie Perkins doubled off Japanese starter Satoshi Nagai and scored on Shane Opitz’s RBI single before Casey Frawley’s two-run double made it 5-3.
That was as close as the Cavalry got as the Golden Eagles’ bullpen took over the game.
PERFECT RELIEF
Kohhei Hasebe tossed three innings of perfect relief before closer Shinichiro Koyama retired the Australians in order with two strikeouts in the bottom of the ninth to preserve the victory.
Picking up the win was Nagai, who allowed three runs on eight hits while fanning six and walking one over five innings to beat his counterpart Motta, who lasted only two innings with three runs charged against him in a losing effort.
Koseki was named the game MVP for his clutch double that drove in three runs for the Golden Eagles.
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
RSS