The Uni-President Lions teed off against the Sinon pitching squad with 14 runs on a season-high 21 hits to trounce the Bulls 14-1 at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium on Friday night.
The impressive road victory not only nipped a two-game slide for the defending champs, but also helped them maintain a half-game lead over the top-ranked La New Bears.
Kao Guo-ching’s sacrifice fly following back-to-back singles from Pan Wu-hsiung and Chen Lien-hong got the Lions on the board in the top of the first before the Bulls fought back and tied the game at 1-all on the strength of three second-inning singles off Lions starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
But that was all the damage the Bulls could do as the Lions went on a rampage over the next four frames, plating 11 unanswered runs off two Sinon pitchers — highlighted by a base-clearing three-run double and a two-run homer by Kao Chih-kang — to jump to a 12-1 lead.
Two more runs by the Lions in the eighth wrapped up the scoring as Du Du picked up his fourth win of the year, with the Lions ace allowing just one run on eight hits over six innings.
In his worst performance of the year, Bulls starter Lin Ying-jeh tied a career-high of seven runs allowed on eight hits over three innings.
BEARS 13, ELEPHANTS 7
The Brother Elephants dug themselves a seven-run hole and never recovered as they dropped a 13-7 decision to the La New Bears at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday to start the weekend on a whimper.
Starter Iyono Takateru failed to keep a rare first-inning lead from his hitters by surrendering a pair of singles and doubles on top of three walks in a six-run second. He then served a homer to Timothy Raines Jr in the third to fall behind 7-1.
Even though the Elephants’ offense would score at least a run in each of the final four innings for a total of seven, it wasn’t enough to make up for their generous pitching staff, which allowed six more runs.
Bears starter Hsu Wen-hsiung earned his second win of the season with six decent innings of three-run ball on five hits, improving to 2-3 for the year.
Aaliyah Edwards on Monday pulled off the stunner of the opening round of the Unrivaled one-on-one tournament, beating top-seeded Breanna Stewart 12-0. The tournament to be played over three days featured 23 of the WNBA’s 36 players. A few had other commitments and a couple others were out with injuries. Stewart got the ball first against Edwards and missed a contested layup. Edwards then hit a three-pointer from the corner and a jumper from the elbow to go up 5-0. The player who scores keeps the basketball. Edwards hit two layups and a three-pointer to seal the win. Stewart, a two-time WNBA Most Valuable Player,
SPEEDSKATER: Her bronze medal ended Taiwan’s run at the Asian Winter Games without a medal since the nation first participated in the second iteration in 1990 Speedskater Chen Ying-chu yesterday made history as the first athlete representing Taiwan to secure a medal at the Asian Winter Games. Competing at the HIC Speedskating Oval in Harbin, China, Chen clocked 10.510 seconds in the women’s 100m event, finishing third behind South Koreans Lee Na-hyum and Kim Min-sun, who posted times of 10.501 and 10.505 seconds respectively. Her bronze medal ended Taiwan’s drought at the Asian Winter Games since the nation first participated in the second iteration in 1990. This year’s Games mark Chen’s debut at the event. Previously excelling in roller speedskating, she won six medals at world championships before transitioning
Taiwan’s Lin Yun-ju and Kao Cheng-jui were defeated by their Chinese counterparts 3-0 on Saturday in the men’s doubles final at the World Table Tennis (WTT) Singapore Smash. Lin and Kao received their silver medals after being defeated by third-seeded duo Lin Shidong and Wang Chuqin of China 2-11, 4-11, 11-13. The Taiwan pair were left playing catch-up early in the match after the Chinese duo proved unstoppable in the first and second game. Although Lin and Kao picked up their pace in the third game and at one point took a 10-8 lead, they were crucially unable to take
Australia yesterday won two of four races on the first day of the SailGP Sydney event on Sydney Harbour to finish the day atop the points table ahead of Britain and a French team who made an outstanding return after missing the first two events of the season. Australia also had a third and a second placing, finishing the day with 37 points, ahead of Britain with 32 points and France with 27. Britain won the second race of the day and Switzerland, who won the first race, were in fourth place overall. Australia’s prowess in the start box was again the