The 7,500 capacity Hsinchuang Stadium was declared sold-out before last night's match between the Elephants and the Bulls had started.
The Elephants defeated the Bulls 11-1 in a landslide fashion to won their 21st game in the second half of the season. Hurst also won his 15th to stay on the top of the chart alone.
The Elephants first scored one run on the top of the third with Chen Rwei-chang double to deep left that drove his teammate home.
The Bulls struck right back at the bottom of the same inning. After Chang Chia-hao was walked by Hurst, Chueh Shoo-mu hit a line drive to deep center that scored Chang all the way from the second base to tied the game at one apiece.
The top of the fourth appeared to be the inning for the Elephants as three more runs were scored against Bulls' starter Ho. Chen Chih-yuen first was walked and later stole the second as Peng Cheng-min pushed Chen to third base with a single to the right. Tsai Feng-an then belted in the go-ahead run and Chen Hwai-shan knocked in another run. With one on and two outs, Lee Chih-chieh launched his 4th homerun of the season to lead the Bulls 5-1.
In the eighth the Elephants again started their powerful offense and scored five more runs and knocked Bulls' starter Ho out of the mound as he suffered his eighth loss of the season.
Tsai Feng-an drove in another two runs in this inning and continues to lead on the RBI chart with 67.
The two clubs will meet again tonight in Hsinchuang
Whales 4, Lions 3 (10 innings)
On the top of the fourth inning Whales' Chen Wen-bin blasted a towering shot to the left side of the bleacher to register his 20th homerun of the season and brought a 2-0 lead for the Whales. With this homerun, Chen became the first local player to hit 20 or more homeruns in a single season after the now-dissolved Chinatimes Eagles' Liao Min-hsiung belted 22 in 1995.
The Whales sent their ace Sung Chao-chee to the mound while John Burgos was starting for the Lions hoping to bounce from the loss suffered the night before.
On the top of the fourth the Whales struck first with Chen Wen-bin's two-run shot to the left bleacher to take a 2-0 lead over the Lions.
The Lions came back with one run each in the fifth and sixth inning to tie the game, however, Cheng Chang-min later drove in the leading run by hitting a double to the left in the seventh inning for the Whales to take the lead again. At bottom of the eighth Lions' Chen Cheng-shien belted in the third run for the Lions to tie the game again at 3-3.
The game went to extra innings and the Whales executed successfully to score the winning run on the top of the 10th.
The two teams will play the last game in Tainan tonight at 5:05pm.
The Kaohsiung Fala avenged the ugly loss on Friday night by beating the Chiayi Luka in front of the Hualien crowd last night with a 6-1 score.
The win evened the series for the Fala and sent the Luka back to last place in the league standings.
Fala starter Lee Fong-hua, in only his fourth start of the season, pitched seven solid innings en route to his seventh win of the season. Lee gave up one run on eight hits, before handing the ball to reliever Jason Lakman in the top of the eighth.
Lakman retired all six batters he faced in eighth and ninth in a non-save situation.
The night for Luka starter Yang Shih-cheng was rather short and painful.
RSS