【China Baseball League（ＣＢＬ） Week-2 Digest 】

Chinese　Japanese

In the second week of the Chinese Baseball League, the Beijing Tigers took on the Tianjin Lians in their home turf, the Guangdong Leopards faced the Eagles in Shanghai, and the Hopestars played the Sichuan Dragons in Wuxi. The games on Sunday in Wuxi and Shanghai faced weather delays and were played through strong rain. The Saturday games featured an new CBL promotional activity called "Fanfan Saturday," where CBL fans were allowed to take part in a pre-game training camp and were invited to a large meal afterwards.

The Beijing Tigers travelled to Tianjin on Friday to take part in the classic Beijing-Tianjin rivalry. Their head-to-head record will most likely determine the winner of the northern division. In the first game of the set, the Lions spent little effort in taking the game 10-0, mirroring an April 19th, 2003 opening game victory where they crushed the Tigers 12-2. Beijing came back in the second game with outstanding defense to beat the Lions, 3-1. The win ended the Lions' unbelievable 14 game win-streak stretching back to last year. In the third game, Lu Jiangang of the Lions came back with a complete game, nineinning effort, toasting the Tigers 3-0.

"The Shanghai returned to their home field to face a Guangdong team playing at their peak level,

The Sichuan team had a number of players fighting through colds this past weekend. In the Friday game, the Hopestars relied on stonewall pitcher Huang Quan to stifle the Sichuan offense, and escaped defeat with a 3-1 win aided by the relief efforts of pitcher Gao Jian. IN the second game, the Sichuan team opened the flood gates to usher in 19 hits, winning 19-4 in the contest. In the third game, the Sichuan team opened strong, scoring 5 runs in the first inning, but couldn't hold the fort under heavy rains, and lost 10-5. The win for the Hopestars, their fourth, put them at the top of southern standings.

The quality of play in the second week of games faltered somewhat under the efforts of younger players, causing several games to be called early. The younger players on the Hopestars have developed their talents under the umbrella of competition in the CBL, and will be exciting to watch in the second part of their development.

The Tianjin team sits atop the northern standings, with the Beijing Tigers and Sichuan Dragons trailing. In the southern standings, the Jiangsu Hopestars have benefited from home field advantage, and lead their division with a .500 win percentage. The Leopards and Eagles aren't trailing by much, and will have many opportunities to catch up in the next few weeks.

Next week, the Sichuan team faces Tianjin at home, the Beijing team faces Shanghai in their home garden in a face-off of young talent, and the Hopestars play the Leopards at home again in a critical set in the Southern division standings.

April 20
April 20 18:00 Jiangsu　WuxiBaseball Stadium