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Bears stomp on Cobras as season winds down

Bears slugger Lin Chih-sheng zooms in on a pitch during Friday's game at Kaohsiung. The second-year pure hitter was responsible for both of the Bears' runs in the 2-1 win over the Cobras. The Bears won the series over the weekend 2-1. PHOTO: LA NEW BEARS

Red-hot La New Bears continued their late-season surge in last week's play as they took three of four from the Macoto Cobras to achieve a 25-1-23 record, good for a share of the lead with the Sinon Bulls in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League standings.

While sound pitching kept the opposing clubs from blowing the Bears out early in the game like they had done frequently in the first half of the season, it was the Bears offense that got the job done during their recent 6-3 run by averaging over five runs per contest.

In Saturday's 8-6 win over the serpents in Kaohsiung, the Bears bats delivered early and often in their triumph over the first-half champs.

After knocking in a run in each of the first three innings, the Bears doubled their 3-0 advantage with three more runs during the fourth inning, highlighted by slugger Lin Chih-sheng's RBI single to the opposite field.

The Bears scored another run in the fifth before the Cobras answered with a six-run sixth inning, capped by outfielder Chuang Jin-heh's three-run homer off reliever Liang Rue-hao to make it 7-6.

Liang did not allow another run the rest of the way to preserve the win for starter Wu Si-yo.

Pocketing the loss for the serpents was Hsu Chu-jien, one of the three local starters for Macoto with 10 or more wins this year.

Bears 2, Cobras 1

It was Lin's two-out single in the bottom of the 10th that broke a 1-1 tie to gave the Bears a 2-1 win at Kaohsiung last Friday. The second-year pure hitter was responsible for both of the Bears' runs on the night -- the first in the fifth on a ground-out to short and the second clinching the win on the final at-bat.

The Cobras started the game by taking a quick 1-0 lead against Bears starter Hsu Wen-hsiung in the opening inning on Luo Ming-ching's one-run single up the middle. But that would be all the offense they could muster off Hsu, as he two-hit the Cobras in the next five innings before being relieved in the seventh by game-winner Lee Fong-hua.

Rookie righty Lin En-yu (12-8) was tagged with the tough loss for yielding Lin's game-winning hit in the 10th.

Other CPBL action

The Bears were not the only team making a serious run for the second-half title in a wild week of play that showcased four different squads for either a sole possession or a share of the lead in the CPBL standings.

A 2-1 series win over the Bulls on the road proved the President Lions' resilience as they trailed the Bears and the Bulls by a half-game in the standings to remain in contention for the second-half title.

A pair of impressive wins over the home Bulls in Taichung last week briefly gave the Lions the overall lead atop the standings before things turned south in Sunday's 5-2 series-ending loss.

Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen was sensational in eight spectacular innings for blanking the Bulls in a three-hit effort on Thursday, as the Lions cruised to a 4-1 road victory.

It was not until a throwing error by the Lions defense, which led to an unearned run for the Bulls in the bottom of the ninth, that the Lions lost a shutout bid.

Offensively for the big cats, four different hitters collected two hits or more off the Bulls staff, led by outfielder Liu Fu-hao's 2-for-4 night.

Lions 15, Bulls 6

Tempers flared in Saturday's 15-6 win for the big cats as back-to-back hit-batsmen by Bulls starter Lenin Picota led to an early ejection for the Panamanian veteran in a game that went the wrong way for the Bulls from the get-go.

Four homers lit up the Taichung sky like fireworks on National Day, with the Lions buzzing the Bulls staff on three of the four occasions in a sloppy game that had both teams ringing up a combined total of 10 errors.

Lions starter Jose Espinal was credited with the win for his six innings of four-run ball (two earned), while his counterpart Picota (16-8) picked up the loss.
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