In a tightly contested final, a go-ahead single in extra-inning was pivotal as Greater Kaohsiung edged New Taipei City 8-7 to win the under-15 Hua Nan Cup at the Sinjhuang Sports Complex in New Taipei City on Sunday.
Greater Kaohsiung, with the team’s core players from Zhongxiao Junior High School and students from four other schools, will go on to represent Taiwan at the IBAF U15 Baseball World Cup in Baja California Sur, Mexico, from Aug. 1 to Aug. 10.
In the semi-finals on Saturday, Greater Kaohsiung advanced to the final by defeating Taitung County 7-4 in the early afternoon contest.
Photo courtesy of the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association
In the second semi-final the outcome was still uncertain late in the game until New Taipei City’s big bats came alive to blow it wide open by scoring eight runs in the eighth inning, before eventually shutting out Taipei 10-0.
The final was a see-saw battle, with both sides trading runs throughout the game and it was knotted at seven runs each after the regulation nine innings.
New Taipei City could not get the run they needed in their top of the 10th frame and Greater Kaohsiung seized their chance to lift the Hua Nan Cup.
With two men on base, second batter in the lineup Juan Ming-chih slapped a bouncer through the infield for a single, that scored the walk-off run.
“It was a really tough game and very nerve-wracking. We had opportunities to score in the eighth and ninth innings, but our players could not capitalize. However, they came good in the 10th, so I am proud of the team,” Greater Kaohsiung coach Ni Kuo-chang said.
Ni, a six-year professional player with Taichung Agan of the now-defunct Naluwan Taiwan Major League and a familiar figure to sports journalists for his good-humored personality, said in his post-game interview that “my heart was pounding like crazy.”
“I thought it might stop beating. In the late innings, my arms and legs got cramps, because my body was so wound up,” he said.
Ni gave credit to Juan for the winning run, as the hitting star drove in two runs in the game and finished with nine RBIs overall to top all players in the tournament.
He also praised pitcher Hsu Chi-ling for winning two key games, for which he was selected the tournament’s Most Valuable Player.
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