Elephants stomp all over Bears in three-game series

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 (彭政閔) 3-for-4 night with four RBIs.

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 (林明憲) and catcher Chen rei-chang (陳瑞昌).

Japanese starting pitcher Yokota Hisanori pitched six innings for the win before relievers Hsiao Ren-wen (蕭任汶) and Wang Jing-li (王勁力) combined for three innings of scoreless relief to keep the shutout intact.

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 (謝佳賢) and a grand slam by designated hitter Cheng Jin-yi (鄭景益) in the bottom of the eighth inning.

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 (林英傑) and Jeff Andra's complete-game effort.

Catcher Yeh Jung-chang's (葉君璋) wild throw to third after a passed ball on the same play scored the runner all the way from second, turned out to be the game-clincher.

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 (高建三) fell victim to another loss caused by the lack of run production, making him a four-game loser this season.