Brother Elephants batter Huang Cheng-wei’s RBI single with a man on third forced extra innings that saw his club play through to the 12th for a 2-2 draw with the Sinon Bulls at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tienmu on Saturday night.
Chang Jien-ming led off the game with a single off Brother starter Lee Hao-ren for the Bulls and scored two batters later when Lin Yi-chuan muscled a liner to right. Wilton Veras followed with a sacrifice fly to give their team an early 2-0 lead.
The Elephants got back a run in the bottom of the same frame courtesy of a single by Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min off Sinon lefty Lin Ying-jeh.
That was all either club could manage over the next seven innings as Lee and Lin buckled down and held their ground through the sixth, while the bullpens did their part to keep it 2-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth.
The Bulls had an excellent chance to go up in the top of the 11th when they had runners on first and second with one out against Elephants closer Ryan Cullen and Chang “Prince of the Forest” Tai-shan at the plate.
The Prince, however, short-hopped a pitch to third that led to a force out at second before the Elephants defense caught Chang Jien-ming trying to reach third in an unusual double play that put an end to the Bulls’ scoring threat.
LIONS 5, BEARS 2
Yang Dong-yi’s clutch double in the top of the sixth broke a 2-all deadlock for the Uni-President Lions as they went on to defeat the La New Bears 5-2 at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Saturday night for the Cats’ fourth consecutive victory.
The visiting Cats pounced ahead 1-0 in the top of the third on a pair of doubles by Pan Wu-hsiung and Kuo Dai-chi, and made it 2-0 an inning later when Yang hit a sacrifice fly to center that scored the runner from third.
La New finally got on the board in the bottom of the fourth, with Chen Chin-fong’s two-run blast off Lions starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen notching it up to 2-2. It was Chen’s 24th long ball of the year.
Unfortunately for the Bears, that was all the runs they could muster as Du Du worked a quick fifth and sixth before the Lions bullpen came in and shut down the Bears attack with three scoreless innings of one-hit relief.
Wilyer Abreu watched the ball leave the park and tossed his bat high in the air. His Venezuela teammates streamed out of the dugout in celebration. The comeback was on and the win over the reigning World Baseball Classic (WBC) champion Japan was within reach. Japan, their 11-game WBC winning streak on the line, held a 5-4 lead in the sixth inning of Saturday’s thrilling quarter-final matchup when Abreu put his team ahead with the biggest swing of the game: a three-run shot off Hiromi Itoh that sent the loanDepot Park crowd into a passionate roar and helped seize Venezuela’s 8-5
A BREATHLESS BATTLE: France clinched the championship in a vicious back-and-forth match with England, denying Ireland the title by just a few points France won back-to-back Six Nations titles after beating England 48-46 on a last-second penalty-kick by Thomas Ramos in a thriller for the ages on Saturday. England scored their seventh try in the 77th minute and converted for 46-45. If the score held for a few more minutes, Ireland would have been crowned the champion. But France pressed yet again with 14 men, lost possession, regained it, and earned two simultaneous penalties after the fulltime siren. Captain Antoine Dupont debated with referee Nika Amashukeli where the penalty spots were. Ramos, who did not miss a goal-kick all night, finally lined up his seventh
Home runs are greeted with a celebratory shot of espresso and the donning of an Armani jacket. Victories are marked with bottles of red wine while the soaring voice of opera singer Andrea Bocelli echoes through the locker room. Welcome to baseball, Italian-style. Written off as 80-1 underdogs before the World Baseball Classic started, Italy’s fairytale tournament has carried them all the way to today’s (Taipei time) semi-finals in Miami against Venezuela. On Saturday, Italy — who scored a stunning upset of a star-studded US lineup during the pool phase — kept their unbeaten campaign alive with a nail-biting 8-6
Kimi Antonelli became Formula 1’s second-youngest race winner with a composed drive to victory for Mercedes in an eventful Chinese Grand Prix yesterday. The 19-year-old Italian was the youngest pole position starter and briefly lost the lead to Lewis Hamilton of Ferrari at the start, but retook it soon after and was in control after that. “We did it! We did it!” Antonelli shouted to his team on the radio amid laughs and whoops. It was another 1-2 finish for Mercedes to start the season as Antonelli’s teammate George Russell came through a battle with both Ferraris to finish second. Lewis Hamilton was
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