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Lions roar back to stun the Elephants

A recent photo of the Cobra's Hsieh Jia-shien. Hsieh, along with four Cobra sluggers, hit home runs against the Whales for an 11-7 win in Hsinchuang on Thursday. PHOTO: CPBL

Runs in the last two innings by the President Lions in Tainan on Tuesday turned what had seemed to be a sure Brother Elephants victory into a 4-3 come-from-behind win for the home Lions in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League.

The late-game rally, powered by Lions first baseman Kao Guo-ching's two-run, game-clinching double not only rewarded rookie starter Lin Yueh-pin with a complete-game victory, it snapped the Brother Elephants' league-best, five-game winning streak to temporarily cool off Taiwan's most popular sports franchise.

The classic seesaw battle featured three lead changes as the Lions struck first in the bottom of the first inning on right fielder Chen Lien-hung's line-drive single to shallow right field, before the Elephants answered with a run in the second and third inning on left fielder Lee "Rambo Junior" Chih-jeh's sacrifice fly and second baseman Fong Sheng-shien's RBI double.

It took newly acquired slugger Israel Alcantara's seventh home run of the season, a solo shot off Elephants starter Nakagomi Sin, in the bottom of the fourth to even things up at 2-2.

A wild pitch by Lin Yueh-pin in the top of the seventh inning gave the Elephants runner on third the green light to reach home, making it 3-2 to set the stage for Kao's dramatic late-inning heroics.

Elephants 1, Lions 0

Game 2 of the four-game series in Tainan on Wednesday had the Elephants drawing first blood in the opening frame on a sacrifice fly by Lee Chih-jeh off a less-than-100-percent Japanese righty Toshinide Narimoto for a quick 1-0 lead.

Even though Lions manager Hsieh Chang-hern would pull his starter just an out into the game, the damage proved to be insurmountable because Elephants starter Ichiro Muto produced a two-hit shutout over seven spectacular innings before Wang Jing-li wrapped up the win with two solid innings of scoreless relief work.

The 1-0 final was the Elephants' first shutout of the season, giving the once-flat club its sixth win in the last seven contests.

Cobras 11, Whales 7

Four home runs by the Macoto Cobras' potent lineup turned back the Chinatrust Whales, winners of their past three outings.

A large Taichung crowd on Thursday was at hand to witness the professional debut of the serpents' promising righty, Lin En-yu.

The 11 runs were the most in a game by the Cobras this year, making it easy for Lin.

After surrendering a two-run double in the bottom of the first, the rookie pitcher didn't allow another run in six solid innings of work.

As for the Cobras' relievers, things got a bit dicey in the seventh when the Whales batted around the order against three different pitchers to ring up five runs, making it 9-7 in favor of the Cobras.

Ace closer Enrique Ramirez then stepped on the mound with just under two innings of shutout relief to preserve the 11-7 win for the Cobras.

Bears 6, Bulls 6

Osvaldo Martinez's bid for a piece of local baseball history ran into a roadblock for the second time when La New Bears slugger Lin Chih-sheng's two-run blast over the centerfield fence two outs into the ninth forced a 6-6 tie in Taichung on Thursday.

The Sinon Bulls' ace starter reached the century mark two weeks ago, but had failed to get another win after dropping a tough decision against the Cobras last week and getting a no-decision on Thursday because of Lin's clutch homer.

Three unanswered runs by the Bears in the final two innings of the game off Bulls' closer Hector Ramirez highlighted the team's two-year old problem of not having a reliable closer.

Since the departure of former ace closer Ramon Morel in 2003, the bullpen continues to blow one save opportunity after another for manager Liu Rong-hua.

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