Kuo Dai-chi’s bases-loaded two-run single capped a three-run spurt as the Uni-President Lions broke a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the fifth to defeat the La New Bears 5-1 at the Douliou County Baseball Stadium last night.
Even though neither team had anything to play for as far as the post-season was concerned, since both had been eliminated from the playoffs long before last night, it did not keep the players from showcasing what they do best as they strived to finish the season on a high.
Most notable on the night was the Lions’ Liu Fu-hao, who snagged four stolen bases against Bears catcher Huang Hao-ran to take a two-base lead over the Sinon Bulls’ Cheng Da-hong for the season.
PHOTO: CHAN CHAO-YANG, TAIPEI TIMES
“The coach gave me the green light all the way tonight, so I went whenever I thought I had a chance,” Liu said after the game.
He made the most of the three walks he drew by going a stunning four-for-five in the stolen base department.
Also starring for the Cats was veteran slugger Chen Lien-hong, who took Bears reliever Hsu Ming-jeh deep for a pinch-hit solo homer to lead off the bottom of the eighth to close out what could be the final season of his 14-year career.
“We are all thrilled to see him swing the bat as well as he did in this game,” Liu said in his post-game interview.
The Lions needed only two at-bats to plate their first run of the game, with Liu drawing a lead-off walk against Bears starter Chen Cheng-da, stealing second and third against the rookie side-armer and scoring on Huang Kang-lin’s single to left.
Chen Cheng-da would regroup in a hurry to shut down the Lions offense through the fourth to give his club a chance to tie the game up at 1-1 in the fourth on three straight singles off Lions starter Pan Jung-rong.
That was the extent the rookie hurler could handle the defending champions as he faltered in the decisive fifth, coughing up three runs (four overall) to end his campaign on a down note.
Pan was credited with his first win of the year in only his second start, allowing a lone run on five hits in as many innings. He had served primarily as a reliever prior to last night’s contest.
Today, the Lions take on the Brother Elephants in Tainan at 2:05pm, while the Bears face the Sinon Bulls in Kaohsiung County at the same time.
South Korean giants T1, led by “Faker,” won their fifth League of Legends (LoL) world championship crown in London on Saturday, beating China’s Bilibili Gaming (BLG) in a thrilling final. The teams were locked at 2-2 at a packed O2 arena, but T1 clinched game five to make it back-to-back titles after nearly four hours of tense action. China’s BLG started strongly, taking the first game before T1 struck back to level. The Chinese team pulled ahead again at 2-1 only for their opponents to hit back again and go on to take the decider. Faker, who won the Most
Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Belgian partner Elise Mertens on Monday notched up their first win in the doubles group stage of the WTA Finals in Riyadh to keep their semi-final hopes alive, while Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russian partner Veronika Kudermetova were aiming to record their first victory after press time last night. Third seeds Hsieh and Mertens came back from a disheartening opening-day loss to Australia’s Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez to defeat top seeds Ukraine’s Lyudmyla Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the women’s doubles world No. 3 and 4 respectively. The 6-1, 6-3 victory at King Saud University Indoor Arena
Amber Glenn overcame a fall and her own doubts to win a maiden Grand Prix figure skating title on Saturday at the Grand Prix de France. The American skater had the lead from Friday’s short program. That and the support of the crowd got her through a tough free skate in which she fell on a triple flip and put a hand onto the ice to steady herself on two other jumps. “I didn’t feel that great out there today, but I really tried, and the audience really got me through that last half when I was doubting myself,” Glenn
WORLD SERIES: ‘The individuals that were involved in that last night was a very small segment of the east Los Angeles community,’ the Los Angeles county sheriff said Rowdy crowds took to the streets of Los Angeles after the LA Dodgers won the Major League Baseball (MLB) World Series, setting a city bus on fire, breaking into stores and lighting fireworks. A dozen arrests were reported by police on Thursday, but officials said that most fans celebrated peacefully. Video showed revelers throwing objects at police in downtown LA as sirens blared and officers told them to leave the area on Wednesday night after the Dodgers defeated the New York Yankees in Game 5 of the MLB World Series at Giants Stadium in New York. Another video showed someone standing atop
RSS