Riding the success of starter Liu Jung-nan, the Brother Elephants beat the Macoto Cobras 4-1 in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League in Tienmu Saturday, concluding a sweep of the four-game series.
The win helped the Elephants spring past the Chinatrust Whales and the President Lions for the sole possession of second place in the standings, trailing the league-leading La New Bears by 1-1/2 games.
Switch-hitter Chen Huai-shan got the Elephants on the board in the top of the first with an RBI ground out to short before a wild pitch by Cobras starter Milvio Cuevas made it 2-0 in favor of the Elephants.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CPBL
After Chen Keh-fang's sacrifice bunt advanced the runners to second and third with one out in the bottom of the second, Chuang Jin-heh promptly followed with a high chopper to second that scored the Cobra's first run of the game to make it 2-1.
The lone Cobras run in the second off Liu turned out to be the only run they scored against the Elephants right-hander as he settled down to two-hit the serpents over the next five innings en route to his first win of the year.
Cleanup hitter Chen "The Golden Warrior" Chih-yuan's solo home run off Cobras reliever Chen Jia-hong in the top of the fifth capped all the scoring in the game as both offenses failed to produce another run the rest of the way.
PHOTO COURTESY OF CPBL
Lions 3, Whales 2
Rookie catcher Tu Juang-hsun's clutch single in the bottom of the eighth scored the go-ahead run for the President Lions as they overcame an early 2-0 deficit to beat the Chinatrust Whales in Tainan 3-2.
After outfielder Chi Jung-lin's solo shot to deep-left off Lions starter Lin Yueh-pin put the marine creatures up 2-0 in the top of the fifth, the home cats finally solved Whales starter Du Chang-wei with four singles in the bottom half of the inning to even things up at 2-all.
With the game knotted at 2-2 after two scoreless innings of relief by the Whales' Shen Yu-jeh and the Lions' Cheng Bo-ren, the Lions led off the bottom of the eighth with a rare triple to the right-center gap by Chen Jia-wei before Tu delivered the game-clincher on a lining single off the Whales' Chu Wei-ming for the win.
Cheng was credited with the win for pitching a scoreless eighth, despite allowing a pair of two-out singles in the process, while his counterpart Chu was tag for the loss for coughing up the game-winner in a game that the Whales staff failed to protect a hard-earned lead with another late-inning collapse.
Chi's 2-for-4 night extended his league-best hitting streak to 17 games straight, four games shy of the 16-yaer-old record of 21 games, set by Cheng Hsin-sheng of the Mercury Tigers in 1990.
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