The Topco Scientific Falcons played to a scoreless draw against Taitung’s Chii Lih Coral in five innings at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon to end their regular season on a rather “damp” note.
What could have been an excellent opportunity for the second-place Falcons to gain some ground in the standings against top-ranked Taiwan Cooperative Bank ended in a rain-shortened tie as neither team was able to produce anything offensively through five innings of play.
Starter Amaury Rivas tossed five innings of shutout ball, despite serving up six hits against Chii Lih Coral. The Dominican righty, who spent eight seasons in the minors prior to joining the Falcons at the start of the season, dodged a couple of bullets, including a leadoff double in the fourth, with some crafty pitching to keep Chii Lih off the board.
As for Chii Lih, Fernando Hernandez of the US made the most of his final appearance on the mound with five scoreless innings of two-hit ball to keep his team in the game. Chii Lih could have made a run at the postseason with a win had the weather cooperated.
“It’s been a fun ride for us consider the fact that we started dead last in the league,” Chii Lih skipper Luo Song-yong said after the game.
His troops have come a long way since the start of the season, ascending from last place to a fourth-place finish, one spot shy of the post-season.
The top three finishers, Taiwan Cooperative Bank, the Falcons and Taipower will play the Taiwan national team in an exhibition series starting tomorrow to help prepare the Islanders for the upcoming Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea.
Elsewhere in the Popcorn League, the contests scheduled between Taipower and the National Sports Training Center in Taichung and between Taiwan Cooperative Bank and Veetime in Douliou were cancelled due to heavy rain.
The second and third-place finishers are to play a three-game playoff series at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium starting on Aug. 22 for the right to take on the top finisher in a best-of-seven title series that is scheduled for Aug. 26 at the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium.
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