Foreign starters made their mark last week in the Brother Elephants' three-game sweep of the La New Bears in southern Taiwan.
After Thursday night's 6-4 victory by the Elephants, where starter Nakagomi Sin earned his third win of the season, the men in yellow made Tainan the site of their next two bear slaughters on Friday and Sunday with a pair of double-digit shutout wins.
It took American right-hander Jonathan Hurst only 99 pitches to three-hit the Bears in a 11-0 blowout Friday.
Elephants hitters took no prisoners against the Bear starter Phillip Bailey, led by cleanup man Peng Cheng-ming's (
Peng justified his selection as March's Offensive Player of the Month with power and finesse at the plate.
The Elephant's held another hitting clinic on Sunday with a 15-0 blowout.
Peng knocked home three of his seven RBIs for the week to match the other two three-RBI men in leftfielder Lin Ming-shien (
Japanese starting pitcher Yokota Hisanori pitched six innings for the win before relievers Hsiao Ren-wen (
Cobras versus Bulls
The highly anticipated four-game series between the league-leading Macoto Cobras and second-place Sinon Bulls ended in a two-all tie.
After the Cobras drew first blood in Tuesday's 4-3 thriller, the Bulls quickly responded by beating their rivals in a 6-1 decision the following night.
Both clubs travelled to Illan for Friday's 10-7 slugfest in which the Bulls came out on top.
Osvaldo Martinez of the Bulls kept the Cobras lineup guessing for seven innings after his offense had spotted him a commanding 7-1 lead.
The scoreboard would read 10-1 in the eighth, but the tenacious serpents fought back with six consecutive runs on a two-run homer by first baseman Hsieh Jia-shien (
That was as close as the Cobras got because newcomer Gustavo Lopez got the final four outs to preserve the win for Martinez.
The Cobras answered with a one-run win in Saturday's 1-0 shutout, which featured a classic pitching dual between Cobras starter Lin Ying-jeh (
Catcher Yeh Jung-chang's (
The run was not charged to Andra, but he did end up with the tough loss in an otherwise solid performance.
Lions versus Whales
The President Lions kept pace with the top-tier teams in the league by sweeping the Whales for three games during last week.
Sunday's 8-5 final in Tienmu was the easiest of the three Lions wins as the Whales played tough in Games 1 and 2 on Thursday and Saturday, with scores of 3-2 and 3-1, respectively.
The Whales never got the timely hits Saturday, stranding runners in scoring position in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings.
Starter Kao Jien-san (
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