Back-to-back road wins over the President Lions in Tainan upped the La New Bears' league-best record to 14-1-7 as they maintained a two-game lead over the second-place Brother Elephants in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League standings.
Friday night's 9-1 rout of the big cats began with the hosts striking first in the bottom of the first inning when shortstop Luis Ugueto of Venezuela drew a leadoff walk from Bears starter Wu Si-yo, and then scored on a defensive error after advancing to third base on an infield single by Lin Hong-yuan with two outs.
The 1-0 Lions lead lasted less than an inning as the Bears responded with a two-run second on Tseng Hao-ju's two-run homer to deep left field off Lions starter Lin Yueh-ping for a 2-1 Bears lead.
The Bears made it 4-1 with Todd Betts' one-run single in the third inning before the Canadian slugger knocked in another run in the fifth on a sacrifice fly to the opposite field.
Consecutive singles by the Bears brought on set-up man Cheng Bo-ren. But that didn't stop the explosive Bears lineup from ringing up four hits and four walks in what turned out to be a five-run inning.
Wu (2-0) pitched seven strong innings of three-hit ball for the win, allowing a lone unearned run in the first inning before settling down.
Lin, the former first-round pick for the Lions never seemed comfortable on the mound -- allowing six runs on eight hits en route to his third setback of the season.
Bears 3, Lions 2
Shih Chih-wei's run-scoring chopper to second, despite hitting into a double play, broke a 2-all deadlock in the top of the seventh as the Bears ran away with a 3-2 win over the Lions Thursday.
The hosts outhit the Bears 10-6, collecting at least one base hit in all but one inning, but their poor 0-for-4 batting with a runner in scoring position brought in no runs.
Bears starter Kenny Rayborn picked up his fourth victory of the season after allowing two runs on nine hits, a walk and seven strikeouts in eight innings of work. The American right-hander escaped a two-hit fourth without giving up a run by fanning Shih Jin-dien on a called third strike.
Veteran Lions reliever Tsao Jung-yang took the loss.
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