Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen pitched eight solid innings of two-hit ball and Luis Ugueto drove in a pair of runs to lead the President Lions past the Brother Elephants in a narrow 3-2 win in Game 1 of a doubleheader in Tienmu on Saturday afternoon.
The win, Pan's 10th of the year, put the Lions ace in good company with former greats Huang Ping-yang (Weichuan Dragons) and Chen Yi-hsin (Brother Elephants) as the only three local pitchers in league history to record 10 or more wins in each of their first four seasons.
Kao Cheng-hua's opposite-field single off Elephants starter Chuck Smith of the US in the bottom of the second got the Lions on the board with a 1-0 lead before the men in gold answered with the equalizer in the top of the sixth, when outfielder Lee Chih-jeh led off the inning with a double off Pan and scored on an RBI groundout by Liu Geng-hsin.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES
The Lions would regain a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the same inning with consecutive infield singles by Chen Lien-hong and Kuo Dai-chi, before Ugueto's clutch hit with both Chen and Kuo in scoring positions drove home what turned out to be the game-deciding runs.
Down by a deuce, the Elephants were able to squeeze another run out of a stingy Pan in the eighth with another RBI groundout by Liu. But that was as close as they got, as the Lions sent closer Tseng Yi-cheng to pitch a scoreless ninth to secure the victory.
The classic pitchers' duel between Pan and Smith had Pan escaping with the last laugh as Smith fell short by a run, despite allowing just seven hits in as many innings in another quality start.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES
Elephants 3, Lions 1
Three unanswered runs by the Elephants' offense dealt the Lions a 3-1 loss as the two teams split the day-night doubleheader to even their series at one game apiece.
American right-hander Joey Dawley extended his winning streak to three straight with a three-hit gem in eight magnificent innings of work.? He also tied a season-best mark for strikeouts with nine in the game en route to his seventh win of the year.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMESN
The Lions actually drew first blood in the bottom of the third, with third baseman Shih Jin-dien's sacrifice fly to deep-center sending second baseman Chang Jia-yuan, who started the inning with a leadoff walk, around to score.
It was all Elephants from that point on as Fong Sheng-shien's one-run double in the top of the fifth tied things up at 1-1, before Chen Chih-hong's groundout and Liu's walk, both with the bases loaded against Lions reliever Lin Yueh-ping, drove in the game-winners in a two-run sixth.
Jerome Robertson of the US allowed all three of the Elephants runs on a half-dozen hits over five-and-a-third innings of play in his first loss of the year.? He was not particularly sharp, but nevertheless pitched well enough to have earned the win had the run support been there for him.
The defeat ended the Lions' seven-game winning streak over the Elephants, bringing temporary relief to the struggling team.
Whales 14, Bulls 6
The Chinatrust Whales continued their success from the plate with their second straight double-digit scoring affair in Saturday's Game 1 with a 14-6 trouncing of the Sinon Bulls in Sinjhuang.
Following Friday night's 17-6 massacre of the Bulls, the Whales broke out with four first-inning runs in Saturday's contest before rounding out the game with eight more runs to make it look easy.
Six different Whales players had multi-hit games against the Sinon pitching, led by outfielder Kao Jung-chiang's three-for-three effort with an RBI.
Picking up the win for Chinatrust was rookie hurler Su Tseh-yi, who won his first career start with two-and-two-third innings of three-hit relief.
Whales 3, Bulls 3
The Whales seemed ready to wrap up their third straight win in Game 2 of the doubleheader on Saturday when they scored three times in the top of the fourth to claim a 3-2 lead over the Bulls.
But Sinon's Yu Hsien-ming had other ideas.
The speedster came through with a huge two-out single off Whales reliever Chu Wei-ming that scored the tying run for the Bulls to end the week's play with a 3-3 draw.
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