After their miserable 0-4 game against the Macoto Cobras last week, the La New Bears bounced back with back-to-back victories over the ailing Chinatrust Whales in Yilan over the weekend to climb out the cellar in the league standings.
The Bear offense greeted an Yilan crowd of over 3,000 on Saturday night with a first-inning RBI-single up the middle by second baseman Shih Chih-wei (石士偉) that set the tone for the rest of the game. After the Whales answered with their second-inning equalizer to tie the game at one-all, the Bear hitters went to work again on Whale starter Kao-Jien-san (高建三) with a pair of runs in the top of the sixth.
"Self-destruction" would be an understatement in describing the Whales' loss on Friday night as all three of the Bears' runs were related to the four errors committed by the Whales defense.
Bear starter Phillip Bailey went the distance for his second win of the season in a four-hit gem, while his counterpart Kao fell victim to a porous defense that was mediocre at best in his third defeat of the season.
Sunday's contest between the two clubs had the Bears cruising into the eighth with a commanding 5-0 lead, before the Whales managed to get on the board with an eight-inning run.
The three long balls by Hsu Yao-yuan (許堯淵), Kao Long-wei (高龍偉), and Chen Fong-ming (陳峰民) of the Bears were the difference of the game as the Whales actually outhit the Bears 10-to-7.
The Macoto Cobras returned the favor against defending champs the Brother Elephants in Game 2 of the three-game series on Friday night with an impressive come-from-behind win.
After the Elephants jumped to an early 3-0 lead in the first two frames, the Cobras chipped away at the lead with a run each in the third, fifth, and sixth to even things up at 3-all.
Then came the decisive bottom of the eighth, where the Cobras tagged Elephant reliever Wu Jung-yi (吳俊億) for two runs on catcher Ko Liang-chung's (柯良宗) infield, run-scoring single and centerfielder Huang Kao-jung's (黃高俊) sacrifice fly.
The Elephants made a game of it in the top of the ninth by crossing the plate again to close the gap to one run, but Cobra closer Huang Chin-chih (黃欽智) then buckled down and got Chen Chih-yuan to line out to short for the final out in the 5-4 Cobra win.
Sunday's series finale at Tienmu was close until the Elephants scored six unanswered runs in the final three innings to hang the Cobras by a 10-2 final.
Japanese starter Nakagomi Sin allowed a pair of runs on four hits in 7-1/3 innings, before relievers Hsiao Ren-wen (蕭任汶) and Wang Chin-li (王勁力) finished off the Cobras with 1-2/3 innings of near-perfect relief.
After splitting the first two games with the President Lions earlier in the week, the Sinon Bulls overcame a season-high five errors to down the Lions in Hualien on Friday night by a 5-3 final.
Unlike over the previous two weeks, the Lions were unable to come up with important hits on Friday night.
Third basemen from both teams drove home a pair of runs with towering homers in Saturday's 3-3 tie. Chang Tai-shan (張泰山) smashed a hanging curve from Lion starter Tsao Jung-yang (曹竣揚) in his first at-bat and deposited it into the left-center bleachers, before Wu Jia-rong (吳佳榮) belted the 2-2 pitch from Bull starter Yang Jien-fu (陽建福) in the top of the fifth.
Bulls first baseman Chueh Shu-mu (闕樹木) reclaimed the lead for the Bulls in the seventh with his RBI single, before Lion pinch hitter Chen Cheng-shian (陳政賢) answered in the top of the eighth.
RSS