Outstanding pitching by foreign starters Bill Pulsipher and Eric Cyr propelled the President Lions to a pair of impressive wins over the Macoto Cobras earlier this week as the Lions upped their winning streak to a league record of 12 straight.
Tuesday night's contest between the serpents and the big cats in Tainan had the home cats beating Macoto staff ace Lin "Little Chick" En-yu in a 5-1 decision behind a strong effort by American lefty Pulsipher. The former major leaguer took a shutout into the seventh inning on five scattered singles and seven strikeouts before yielding a run in the inning on a groundout by Amaury Garcia after two Cobras had reach via two poorly-hit balls that resulted in back-to-back infield singles.
Offensively for the Lions, outfielder Kuo Dai-chi's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the fourth cracked a scoreless tie before the shortstop's one-run single to right made it 2-0 in favor of the hosts.
Lions catcher Kao Chih-kang led off the fifth with a clean double off Lin and scored on third baseman Shih Jin-dien's RBI single two outs later to give his team a 3-0 advantage in a game in which they never trailed.
Taking the loss for the Cobras was Lin, who allowed more than two earned runs for only the second time this season on a five-run night.
The 10 hits that he gave up over seven innings were also the second most for the Macoto ace, who never seemed comfortable facing the Lions hitters throughout the game.
Lions 9, Cobras 2
Cyr made it look easy in Wednesday night's match between the two clubs with seven innings of one-run ball (on six hits) to help deliver a 9-2 Lions victory that set a new league mark for longest winning streak at 12 and counting.
The southpaw from Canada upped his record to 7-2 by beating Macoto rookie sensation Chang Hsien-chih in convincing fashion, thanks to a formidable President Lions attack that pounded out 13 hits against three different Macoto hurlers to put this one away early.
Consecutive singles by the Lions' Kao Cheng-hua and Liu Fu-hao after a walk by Kao Guo-ching put the Lions ahead 1-0 against Chang in the bottom of the second before the Lions piled on five more runs over the next two innings to claim a commanding 6-1 lead.
With Cyr keeping their bats in check when it counted most, batting 1-for-5 with men in scoring position, the Cobras managed to plate only one run on the six hits and four walks that Cyr surrendered over the seventh inning he pitched.
The win put the Lions in a two-way tie with the La New Bears for the lead in the latest standings with roughly eight games remaining for both teams in a tight race for the first-half title.
Bulls 4, Whales 1 Whales 11, Bulls 3
The Sinon Bulls split their two-game series against the Chinatrust Whales earlier this week with an 11-3 loss at Hsinchu on Tuesday, before evening things up with a 4-1 win in Sinjhuang on Wednesday night.
Ten hits and a pair of Sinon errors spotted Whales starter Tseng Jau-hao a 8-0 cushion through the game's first four innings alone on Tuesday as the marine creatures chased Bulls starter Clint Weibl of the US in a hurry.
After the Bulls rallied for three runs in the top of the fifth on three doubles and a single to cut the Whales lead to 8-3, the Whales would return the favor in the seventh with three runs of their own on two doubles, a single, and a double-steal against Sinon reliever Yu Wen-pin that was executed to perfection to end all scoring for the night.
Picking up his team-high sixth win of the year was Tseng, who allowed three runs on eight hits over seven frames in another quality start, while his counterpart Weibl suffered the loss to drop to a 5-4 mark for the season.
Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan's three-run homer off Whales starter Steve Smyth of the US was the difference in Wednesday night's contest as the Bulls topped the Whales by a 4-1 margin to force a series split.
The league leader in homers (14), batting average (.405), RBIs (38), and total bases (121) more than earned his paycheck for the day with a towering blast that was hit out of the park to demonstrate his amazing power and instinct for the ball.
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