The red-hot Topco Scientific Falcons won the title in the inaugural season of the Popcorn League by topping top-seeded Taiwan Cooperative Bank 18-3 in seven innings in Game 4 of the Championship Series at the Taipei Tianmu Baseball Stadium last night to take the best-of-five series by a 3-1 margin.
Brahiam Maldonado’s perfect four-for-four, hitting with a pair of RBIs led a Falcons lineup that teed off against the Bankers pitching on a 23-hit effort to humble the regular-season champs.
Also starring for the victors were Yang Dai-chun and Kan Ming-yen, who ripped out three hits apiece with seven combined RBIs to account for the bulk of their team’s total run production.
Photo courtesy of the CTBA
In a contest that was all Falcons, the Bankers actually took a 1-0 lead in the opening frame, when Kody Kirkland’s sacrifice fly scored the runner from third to give his team what ended up being their only lead on the night.
After falling behind by a run, the Falcon offense quickly came to the rescue as they plated two in the bottom of the same inning, courtesy of a pair of deadly errors by the Bankers’ defense that failed to turn a double play that could have kept the Falcons from scoring in the inning.
That was the extent to which the Bankers were in the game as Topco Scientific would score at least three runs from the third through the sixth, highlighted by a five-run fifth that featured eight straight hits at one point to put the game away long before the final out was recorded.
By the time all was said and done, the best way to stop the Falcon offense was the mercy rule that ended the game after the seventh, with the Falcons leading by well over 10 runs.
“It is awesome to come away with the winner’s trophy after all the hard work we’ve done,” a very pleased Falcons manager Wu Si-hsien said after the game.
Shohei Ohtani and Clayton Kershaw on Friday joined their Los Angeles Dodgers teammates in sticking their fists out to show off their glittering World Series rings at a ceremony. “There’s just a lot of excitement, probably more than I can ever recall with the Dodger fan base and our players,” manager Dave Roberts said before Los Angeles rallied to beat the Detroit Tigers 8-5 in 10 innings. “What a way to cap off the first two days of celebrations,” Roberts said afterward. “By far the best opening week I’ve ever experienced. I just couldn’t have scripted it any better.” A choir in the
The famously raucous Hong Kong Sevens are to start today in a big test for a shiny new stadium at the heart of a major US$3.85 billion sports park in the territory. Officials are keeping their fingers crossed that the premier event in Hong Kong’s sporting and social calendar goes off without a hitch at the 50,000-seat Kai Tak Stadium. They hope to entice major European soccer teams to visit in the next few months, with reports in December last year saying that Liverpool were in talks about a pre-season tour. Coldplay are to perform there next month, all part of Hong Kong’s
Shohei Ohtani, Teoscar Hernandez and Tommy Edman on Thursday smashed home runs to give the reigning World Series champions the Los Angeles Dodgers a 5-4 victory over Detroit on the MLB’s opening day in the US. The Dodgers, who won two season-opening games in Tokyo last week, raised their championship banner on a day when 28 clubs launched the season in the US. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts shuffled his batting lineup with all four leadoff hitters finally healthy as Ohtani was followed by Mookie Betts, then Hernandez and Freddie Freeman in the cleanup spot, switching places with Hernandez. “There’s a Teoscar tax to
Matvei Michkov did not score on Monday, but the Philadelphia rookie had a hand in both goals as hosts the Flyers earned a 2-1 victory over the Nashville Predators. Ryan Poehling and Jamie Drysdale got the goals for the Flyers (31-36-9, 71 points), who won their third straight. Michkov and Travis Konecny assisted on both. Ivan Fedotov stopped 28 shots to earn his first win since March 1, ending a personal six-game losing streak. Zachary L’Heureux got the lone goal for Nashville. Michael McCarron and Brady Skjei got the assists for the Predators (27-39-8, 62 points), who have just four goals in their
RSS