Bill Pulsipher made it look easy against the league-leading La New Bears on Wednesday night as he pitched the President Lions to a 1-0 shutout win over the Bears in Kaohsiung, extending the Bears' winning streak to eight straight.
The newly arrived American lefty, who spent six seasons in the Major League, was simply awesome in his second start of the year, going the distance for the big cats on six scattered hits (five singles and a harmless double) and five strikeouts for his first win of the year.
Standing opposite to Pulsipher was Bears rookie righty Tsai Ying-fong who followed his four-hit victory over the Sinon Bulls last Thursday with another outstanding effort.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CHINATRUST WHALES
Other than a hanging breaking ball that the Lions' Liu Fu-hao drove out of the park for the game-winning solo homer, the promising hurler out of the National Taiwan College of Physical Education was rock solid in 8-2/3 innings of play, allowing six hits while fanning as many to drop to an even 4-4 mark for the year.
Offensively for the Lions, leadoff man Yang Seng's 3-for-4 night with a double would have earned him the game MVP honor, had it not been for Liu's game-winning solo blast that made the second-year slugger the unanimous choice for the honor instead.
Lions 12, Bears 4
Wednesday night's low-scoring affair was a big contrast to Tuesday's series opener in Kaohsiung, where the two teams combined for 16 runs on 27 in an offensive extravaganza.
The Lions pounded Bears starter Hsu Chih-hua hard for seven runs over the first innings on eight hits, including a home run by Yang and veteran outfielder Chen Lien-hong for a commanding 7-0 lead.
Even though the Bears would put up three runs in the bottom of the third against Lions starter Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen to make it 7-3 on a pair of singles, a double and a walk on top of a wild pitch, that was as close as they got as the Lions plated a run in the fourth and fifth before striking again for three more runs in the top of the ninth in the eventual rout.
Pan was credited with the win, his team-leading fifth of the season, allowing three runs on five hits over five solid innings. His fastball topped out at 152kph against the Bears hitters, who never seemed comfortable with Pan.
Taking the loss for the Bears was Hsu, who surrendered seven runs on eight hits in 2-2/3 innings of work in his sixth loss in a row after starting off the season 3-0 to win the March Pitcher of the Month award.
Elephants 8, Whales 2
Winning back-to-back games for only the second times in May, the Brother Elephants took advantage of a poor-hitting Chinatrust Whales club with a pair of victories to end the month on a high note.
Tuesday night's 8-2 triumph in Pingtung snapped a seven-game losing skid for the men in the golden uniform as they regained some confidence in the batter's box at the expense of the Whales.
Highlighted by rookie slugger Chen Guan-ren's two-homer night, the Elephants lineup went to work right away against Whales starter Chu Wei-ming by scoring five runs in the first two innings to chase the second-year righty in his shortest outing of the year.
The Elephants would add on another run in the third to spot starter Joey Dawley a 6-0 lead from which the American right-hander benefited tremendously en route to an easy win.
Brother Elephants icon Chen "the Golden Warrior" Chih-yuan broke out of a 3-for-25 slump over a six-game stretch by hitting his first home run in three weeks, a three-run shot to dead center off Chu.
Elephants 5, Whales 3
The Elephants beat the Whales by a 5-3 margin in Game 2 of the series at Tainan on Wednesday that set the Whales back for a record-tying ninth straight time.
Chinatrust overcame two Brother leads in the top of the second and the seventh before giving up the game-deciding runs in the bottom of the seventh on two run-scoring doubles by the Elephants' Golden Warrior and shortstop Chen Rei-cheng over a losing cause.
Kao Jung-chiang's solo homer in the top of the second off Elephants starter Liao Yu-cheng forced a 1-all tie for the Whales after starter Steve Smyth had fallen behind 1-0 in the opening inning on his own throwing error that scored the runner from third.
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