...Po-Jung Wang playing for Taiwan...
...during the 2014 Haarlem...
...Baseball Week in the Netherlands...
(© Photo: Henk Seppen) |
At Taoyuan International Stadium, two American pitchers started, Michael Nix for the Monkeys, Josh Roenicke for the Lions.
It was the visting Lions that opened the score in the second inning on a double by Chia-Wei Yang.
However, the reigning champion came alongside in its second at bat when Hong-Yu Lin homered.
The home-team then rallied for three runs in the fourth inning.
Po-Jung Wang led off with a walk, then Chun-Hsiu Chen singled.
That was followed by an outfield-error, which led to runners on second and third base.
A run was then scored when Hong-Yu Lin produced a runscoring single.
A sacrifice fly by Yu-Hsien Chu and single by Cheng-Fei Lin accounted for the next two runs and lifted the lead to 4-1.
The Lions scored their second in the fifth at bat when Chieh-Hsien Chen led off with a double and scored on a single by Chih-Chieh Su.
The visitors then narrowed the deficit to only 4-3 in the seventh after a pitching change on another runscoring single by Su.
But in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Monkeys decided the game with a 6-run rally off of relievers Andy Van Hekken and Ching-Ming Wang.
The rally began with a homerun by Yung-Wei Kuo, followed by a runscoring single by Po-Jung Wang and a sacrifice fly by Hong-Yu Lin.
Hereafter, with two runners on base, Yu-Hsien Chu homered to make it a 10-3 score.
The 39-year old Van Hekken pitched in five Major League-games for Detroit Tigers in 2002.
These were to be his lone games in the Majors.
In following years, through 2011, he pitched in the Minor Leagues for Cincinnati Reds, Atlanta Braves, Florida Marlins, Kansas City Royals and Houston Astros.
In that same period, he earlier pitched in Taiwan for Macoto Cobras in 2007.
The lefthander then made eight starts for the Cobras.
The same year, Dutch pitcher Diegomar Markwell briefly played for the team.
However, he was released in April after only three games and returned to Neptunus for whom he still pitches in the Dutch big league.
Van Hekken pitches in Asia since 2012.
He first played for Nexen Heroes (2012-2015) in South Korea, then Seibu Lions in Japan in 2016.
But he was released by the Lions halfway the season and returned to the Heroes, where he also played in 2017.
This year, the American pitched for New Britain Bees in an Independent League.
He left the team in August when he was signed by the Lions for the remainder of this season in Taiwan.
Monkeys first baseman Chun-Hsiu Chen was named Most Vauable Player of the Series, hitting .500.
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Monkeys again wins Taiwan Series
TAOYUAN (Taiwan) -
Lamigo Monkeys again is the Champion of the professional baseball-league in Taiwan.
On Saturday (November 3), the defending champion won 10-3 against Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions in Game 5 of the Taiwan Series.
With the win, the Monkeys won the Championship Final, 4-2.
For the Monkeys, this was its second consecutive title and fifth in the last seven years.
Overall, this was the sixth title in club-history after having won it first championship in 2006.
