The President Lions leaped past the Macoto Cobras in the latest league standings to take over the sole second-place honor with a pair of impressive wins over the serpents earlier in the week. After losing two straight to the Sinon Bulls last week, the "Ruler of the South" have quietly won three in a row, two of which against their nemesis -- the Cobras.
Monday night's 7-1 decision in favor of the big cats was a makeup game for an earlier rainout that drew over 2100 at the Tainan Stadium. The Lion hitters went to work right off the bat with a lining double by first baseman Wang Chuan-jia to deep right that scored the runner all the way from first.
After the two teams traded zeros over the next innings, the Lion offense roared again in the bottom of the fourth. This time, they put five runs on the board to chase Cobra starter Yang Chi-jia in his shortest outing of the season.
Cobra second baseman Chen Bo-hsun finally broke up the shutout in the ninth with a run-scoring standup double in a game that had the Lions in complete control since the first pitch.
The two squads faced off again in Hsinchu on Thursday night where the Cobras overcame a three-run deficit to tie the game at 3-all in the bottom of the seventh on shortstop Hsu Shih-jeh's bouncer up the middle off starter Joe Daverport.
Determined to win the game at all costs, both managers sent their ace closer to the mound to start the eighth: American righty Michael Garcia for the Lions, and left-hander Huang Chin-chih for the serpents.
The game would remain tied until Lion rookie second baseman Kao Guo-ching slapped an offering from Huang to shallow right for the go-ahead run in the eleventh.
Bears 8, Whales 6
The La New Bears followed their impressive 9-3 victory over the Chinatrust Whales last Sunday with a nail-biting 8-6 win against the Bulls on Tuesday night in Taichung.
Bear starter Wu Shih-yo did not look sharp in the early going for his first start of the season as he yielded three quick runs in the first two innings to trail the Bulls 0-3. He would be relieved by set-up man Robert Marquez in the fourth after just three-and-a-third innings of work.
The Bulls would take a 5-3 lead into the top of the seventh when the Bear offense erupted for four runs to take a 7-5 lead for the first time in the game. A relentless Bull pursuit would reduce the gap to 7-6 but that was as close as they got before the Bears added an insurance run in the ninth to close the deal.
Upcoming games
The Cobras will look to even things up with the Lions in Hsinchuang on Friday and tomorrow while the Bulls finish their homestand against the Bears in Taichung tonight. Brother Elephants will try to add to their two-game winning streak in their two matches against the Whales in Hsinchuang tonight and in Tienmu tomorrow afternoon.
RSS