Taipower made it two wins in a row in their weekend series against Taitung’s Chii Lih Coral by winning Game 2 in a 4-2 final at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon to take the three-game set.
The showdown between a pair of young arms, Wang Hsiang-ying of Taipower and Yang Hsiang-hao of Chii Lih Coral, was a pitchers’ duel over the first three frames as neither offense managed to plate any runs against the stellar pitching of Wang and Yang.
However, Yang’s luck would run out in the bottom of the fourth with Taipower slugger Edward Rogers leading off the inning with a double and scoring two batters later on Yu Tsong-han’s sacrifice fly that made it 1-0.
Even though Yang would escape the inning without further damage, he could not stop the Power Crew from ringing up three runs in the fifth when Liao Chun-kai drove in two with a timely double and scored on a passed ball following a wild pitch by Yang that gave him a free pass to third.
After a scoreless sixth and seventh, Chii Lih finally got on the board with a run off Wang in the eighth on the strength of two singles and an RBI groundout by Chang Hao-wei.
Wang would start off the ninth being pulled after allowing the leadoff runner to reach on a single. He was ultimately charged with Chii Lih’s second run of the game, but it did not stop him from picking up the win as closer Bryan Escanio ably shut down the Chii Lih attack to preserve the victory for Wang.
Taking the loss was Yang who started off well, but fell victim to an inefficient Chii Lih offense that could only produce two runs on eleven hits in a game that could have gone either way for both clubs.
“[Wang] was undoubtedly the biggest factor in the game; we could not have won it without him,” Taipower skipper Lee Ying-nan said of his young ace after the game.
VEETIME 12, NATIONAL SPORTS 0
Taichung’s Veetime cashed in on the five errors committed by the National Sports Training Center defense as they blanked the Trainers in a 12-0 blowout in the night game in Taichung last night to even the weekend series at one win apiece.
It was a sweet revenge for Veetime following their 9-8 defeat in extra innings against the Trainers the night before.
Starter Huang Tsong-lung was credited with the win while the loss was charged against his counterpart Chen Guan-rue.
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