Scoring three quick runs in the first inning, the Brother Elephants struck early against the Sinon Bulls and held on to garner a 4-3 road win at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night.
The win not only brought the Elephants to within a half-game of the top-ranked Lamigo Monkeys for the second-half title with two games remaining in the regular season, but more importantly it kept their title hopes alive as they looked to finish out the season strong.
Trailing the Monkeys by a game heading into last night’s contest, the Elephants were on the verge of elimination if they could not come up with a win since a loss would set them back a game-and-a-half behind the idled Monkeys with two games remaining.
And a win was exactly what they mustered as they pounded three doubles and a single off Luo Cheng-long for a quick 3-0 lead that chased the Sinon rookie starter before he could even register an out and survived a nerve-wracking ninth to keep the win intact.
Down 4-2 to start the home half of the ninth, the Bulls led off with an opposite-field single by Lin Cuen-sheng off Elephants closer Lee Fong-hua.
Sinon scored a run on the merit of two singles one out later to place runners on first and second in what seemed a golden scoring opportunity.
However, the bend-but-not-break Elephants rose to the occasion as Lee recorded a key strikeout on a called third strike against the Bulls’ Hsu Guo-long for the second out of the inning, before the veteran right-hander retired Sinon’s Fang Keh-wei with a nasty 2-2 slider that Fang swung right through to strand a pair of runners for the win.
“That was as big a strikeout as I’ve seen in a long time,” Elephants skipper Chen Rei-chen said after the game about Lee’s clutch performance.
Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s second-inning sacrifice fly, which gave his team a 4-1 lead at that point, proved critical for the Elephants, as it gave them just enough margin to outlast a brilliant relief effort by the Bulls bullpen that held the Elephants scoreless from the third inning on.
Elephants starter Tyler Lumsden was credited with the win to even his season mark at 10-10, allowing two runs on six hits over 5-1/3 innings of work, while the loss went to his counterpart Luo in his shortest start of the season.
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen has become the first female player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after the Golden State Valkyries selected her in the third and final round of the league’s draft on Monday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship earlier this month. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament’s most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as
College basketballer Kaitlyn Chen (陳凱玲) has become the first player of Taiwanese descent to be drafted by a WNBA team, after being selected by the Golden State Valkyries in the third and final round of the league's draft yesterday. Chen, a point guard who played her first three seasons in college for Princeton University, transferred to the University of Connecticut (UConn) for her final season, which culminated in a national championship on April 6. While at Princeton, Chen was named the Ivy League tournament's most outstanding player three times from 2022 to last year. Prior to the draft, ESPN described Chen as a
Kumar Rocker, a first-round pick in both the 2021 and 2022 drafts, on Thursday won for the first time in the major leagues. Rocker struck out a career-best eight in a career-best seven innings as the Texas Rangers beat the Los Angeles Angels 5-3 to complete a three-game sweep. Rocker (1-2) threw a career-high 78 pitches and allowed three runs on five hits without a walk. The 25-year-old right-hander was drafted third overall by Texas in 2022, a year after concerns over a physical led to him going unsigned by the New York Mets as the 10th overall pick. He made his major
Japan yesterday secured a second consecutive Billie Jean King Cup finals appearance with a 2-1 win over 2023 champions Canada, thanks to Ena Shibahara and Shuko Aoyama’s 6-3, 5-7, 6-2 win over Kayla Cross and Rebecca Marino in the qualifying doubles decider. Shibahara and Aoyama powered through the opening set 6-3, breaking twice for a quick 3-0 lead. Cross and Marino hit back in the second, edging it 7-5 to level the match, before the Japanese pair regained control in the third. Canada’s 18-year-old Victoria Mboko edged Shibahara 6-4, 6-7 (8/10), 7-5 in a marathon opening clash. Mboko fired eight aces to
RSS