The Brother Elephants improved to a league-best 4-2 mark with a 4-2 win over the Lamigo Monkeys at the Chengching Baseball Stadium in Greater Kaohsiung last night to force a tie atop the standings for first place with the Uni-President Lions.
Rookie starter Lu Shou-yu gave up an early run in the third inning on a pair of singles to the Monkeys, but quickly buckled down and retired all but two of the next dozen hitters he faced in a four-hit effort over 6-2/3 innings of work with no walks to snatch his first career victory.
Offensively for the men in the golden uniforms, the night belonged to veteran slugger Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min, whose clutch double down the right-field line scored both runners and turned a 0-1 deficit into a 2-1 lead for his team in the bottom of the sixth.
Photo: Huang Chih-yuan, Taipei Times
The Elephants tacked on a pair of runs in the seventh on the merit of back-to-back scoring singles by Chen Jiang-ho and Chen Chih-hong to claim a 4-1 advantage en route to the win.
Monkeys starter Ken Ray did not show his best stuff on the day as he surrendered four runs on nine hits over 6-1/3 frames of work to suffer his first defeat of the season. The American right-hander is now 1-1 with an ERA of 3.86.
LIONS 2, BULLS 0
The Uni-President Lions dealt the Sinon Bulls their fifth straight loss of the season by blanking the Bulls in a 2-0 shutout at the Taichung Intercontinental Baseball Stadium last night.
Right-hander Yuya Kamada took a three-hit shutout bid through the seventh for the second straight start before his bullpen followed with a scoreless eighth and ninth to keep the shutout win intact for the Japanese native who improved to a league-best 2-0 for the season.
The classic pitchers’ duel saw Kamada outhurl his counterpart Lin Chi-wei, who gave up a run on four hits while fanning eight in six innings to lose the game despite pitching a quality start. The loss set Lin back to 0-2 as the Bulls remain winless at 0-5 so far this year.
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
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
DAY OF BLOWOUTS: Elsewhere, the Lakers clinched the third seed in the Western Conference with a 140-109 pounding of the under-strength Houston Rockets The Denver Nuggets on Friday improved their playoff position, with a triple double from Nikola Jokic helping them to a 117-109 win over the Memphis Grizzlies. The Serbian put up 26 points, 13 assists and 16 rebounds. The triple-double performance, his 34th this season, ensured that he will finish the regular season as just the third NBA player to average a triple double across an entire season. The win meant the Nuggets improved to 49-32 on the season and gave them a real chance of grabbing fourth place and home-court advantage in the playoffs. Aaron Gordon top scored with 33 points for Denver,
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