Lin "Little Chick" En-yu threw six-and-two-third impressive innings of shutout ball and Wang Chuan-jia drove in three runs on a three-hit night to help the Macoto Cobras blank the La New Bears 6-0 in Kaohsiung on Wednesday night.
Lin, the Cobras ace pitcher, bounced back nicely from a three-game losing streak to close out the month on a winning note, while Wang, the 13-year veteran slugger, collected his third multi-hit game in six days to improve his batting average to .291.
Wang jumpstarted the Cobras attack in the top of the third inning with a two-out double off Bears starter Kenny Rayborn, before scoring on the ensuing play when teammate Hsieh "the Ugly" Jia-shien connected for the second double of the inning off Rayborn.
A throwing error by La New second baseman Lu Jung-hsiung on a routine grounder would score the Cobras' second run of the game in the same inning to make it 2-0, before the Cobras struck for three more runs in the sixth inning, highlighted by Wang's two-run single with the bases loaded and two outs, to give the visitors a commanding 5-0 advantage.
The shutout win by the serpents avenged their 2-0 loss to the Bears in Tuesday night's series opener in which Bears newcomer Anthony Fiore of the US tossed eight intelligent innings to win his local debut in grand fashion.
Suffering just his third loss of the year was Rayborn, who was a couple of outs away from keeping the game scoreless, allowing five runs (four earned) on eight hits while fanning five over six frames.
The loss by the Bears ended their 10-game winning streak, as the league leaders saw their lead over the second-placed Sinon Bulls cut to two-and-a-half games.
Lions 5, Elephants 1
Thanks to another solid outing from starter Jeriome Robertson, the President Lions handed the hapless Brother Elephants their record-tying twelfth-straight defeat with a 5-1 win in Hsinchu on Wednesday evening to kick off the week with a bang.
The American southpaw won his fifth start in a row to improve to 5-1 for the year with seven scoreless innings of work despite allowing a total of 10 Elephants to reach the bases on eight hits, a walk and an error by his defense.
Robertson pitched himself out of trouble on several occasions by fooling the Elephants into swinging at many bad pitches and through strong assistance from his defense, which turned a key double play and gunned down a runner at third to keep the scoring down to a minimum.
The Lions drew first blood through outfielder Kuo Dai-chi's fourth home run of the year, a two-run shot off Elephants starter Yeh Yong-jeh, for a 2-0 lead before adding another three runs with a fifth-inning sacrifice fly by Kuo and a two-run opposite-field single by second baseman Yang Seng.
It was not until the bottom of the eighth inning, when the Lions had a 5-0 lead and Robertson had been pulled from the game, that the Elephants finally troubled the scorers with a lone run to avoid the shutout.
Peng "Chia Chia" Cheng-min and Chen Guan-ren each had a pair of hits on the night after returning from a long absence to provide the Elephants' only highlights of the game.
Bulls 3, Whales 2
Hsu Guo-long's acrobatic dive for the ball on what would have been a game-tying hit led to the final out of the game as the Sinon Bulls rallied from a two-run deficit to beat the Chinatrust Whales in a 3-2 decision at Chiayi on Tuesday night for their eighth win in nine games
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