Seven eighth-inning runs against Chinatrust Whales ace closer Dario Veras helped the Sinon Bulls overcome a 4-2 deficit en route to a 9-4 victory in their series opener at Douliou on Wednesday night.
The defending champs rang up six straight hits off Veras in an eight-hit eighth, highlighted by centerfielder Tseng Hua-wei's leadoff double and a single in the same inning off reliever Cheng Chih-chiang for the win, extending their non-losing streak to four in a row.
Sinon starter Clint Weibl picked up his second win of the season in another solid effort with eight innings of four-hit ball. Two of the four hits he allowed were homers to the Whales' Chi Jung-lin (two-run shot in the sixth) and Kao Jung-chiang (solo blast in the seventh) that actually had him in line for the loss if it was not for the eight-run explosion in the game-deciding eighth.
Steve Smyth saw his chance for the second win of the year go down the drain in a no-decision with Veras failing to preserve the win for the American right-hander, suffering his first loss of the season in by far his worst performance in three seasons.
Offensively for the Bulls, four batters had multi-hit games against six different Whales pitchers, led by Tseng and veteran catcher Yeh Jung-chang's three-hit nights.
Cobras 6, Bears 6
Long balls dominated Tuesday night's contest between the Macoto Cobras and the La New Bears as Hsieh Jia-shien and Chen Chin-fong each homered for their respective club in a seesaw battle at Kaohsiung that ended in a 6-6 draw.
Hsieh got the Cobras on the board in the top of the second with a solo shot to deep-left off La New starter Gustavo Martinez for a quick 1-0 lead. The opposite-field blast by the defending home run champ marked the 5,000th in league history as the game was stopped briefly to celebrate the impressive milestone.
The Cobras 1-0 lead lasted less than an inning as the home Bears responded with a four-run third against starter Fernando Hernandez capped by Chen's two-run shot to dead-center and Pan Chung-wei's rare triple down the first base line that scored the runner from first.
Trailing 4-1, Macoto would muster three runs in the sixth on back-to-back singles by Hsieh and veteran slugger Wang Chuan-jia and a throwing error on top of a leadoff walk by Martinez.
Kuo Ming-ren's two-out single off La New's Hsu Wen-hsiung helped the Cobras regain a 5-4 advantage in the seventh before Pan's infield single plated the equalizer for the Bears in the eighth to force a 5-5 tie.
The seesaw affair continued in the ninth with the Cobras striking again to take a 6-5 lead, only to see the hosts answered by belting a pair of extra-base hits off Macoto closer Jose Paniagua with two outs to end the game on a 6-6 tie.
Elephants 2, Lions 1 Lions 9, Elephants 3
The President Lions split the first two games of the four-game series with the Brother Elephants as the Elephants escaped Tainan with a narrow 2-1 win on Tuesday before the Lions returned the favor in a 9-3 victory on Wednesday night.
Kefu Tetsu turned in his best outing of the young season by tossing eight innings of one-hit ball for the team in the gold uniform. The Elephant's Japanese ace took a perfect game into the sixth before the Lions' Liu Fu-hao broke it up with an infield single and eventually scored the game's first run in the same inning.
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