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Rath, Bears pummel Lions

Gary Rath pitched eight solid innings of one-run ball and Huang Long-yi drove in a pair of runs to lead the La New Bears past the President Lions in a 5-1 road win at Tainan on Saturday evening.

The victory not only extended the Bears' winning streak to three straight, but also propelled the defending champs atop the league standings with a half-game lead over the second-place Macoto Cobras.

The Bears hitters went to work right away by scoring a run in each of the first two innings off Lions starter Jeriome Robertson for a quick 2-0 advantage.

The Bears scored in the first inning on a hard-hit single by shortstop Lin Chih-sheng and in the second on a double-steal that easily scored the runner from third.

Neither team would put up any runs over the next two innings before the Bears roared once more in the top of the fifth, courtesy of cleanup man Chen Chin-fong's RBI single to shallow-left and outfielder Huang's two-run double that found its way to the left-center gap to make it 5-0 in favor of the Bears.

Bears starter Rath took a two-hit shutout into the seventh until Lions second baseman Yang Seng's leadoff double set up first baseman Kao Guo-ching's run-scoring single.

That was the only run that the home Lions could score as Rath worked out of a jam in the seventh by stranding a runner on first with an inning-ending strikeout. In the eighth, Rath benefited from a lazy groundout to short that left two more Lions.

Closer Huang Jung-chung pitched a scoreless ninth to preserve the win.

Four different Bears hitters had multi-hit games, with Huang's 2-for-3 effort with two RBIs leading the way.

As for the Lions, Yang's 2-for-4 hitting was the lone highlight for the hosts, who have lost three in a row as they struggle to find the winning formula this year.

Picking up his first win as a Bear, Rath allowed a run on six hits in eight effective innings while fanning five and walking one to beat his counterpart Robertson, whose first game appearance this season was rather disappointing after he went a brilliant 8-2 in 12 starts for the Lions last year.

Elephants 6, Bulls 6

A sudden downpour during the bottom of the sixth inning cut the game between the Brother Elephants and the Sinon Bulls in Hsinchunag several innings short as the two clubs played to a 6-6 tie on Saturday night.

The classic seesaw battle between the league's two most popular teams saw the Elephants off to a fast 3-0 lead in the opening frame on team captain Peng "Chia Chia" Cheng-min's three-run homer off Bulls starter Yu Wen-pin.

The Bulls would quickly get two of the three runs back in the bottom of the second when they strung together three singles in a row off Elephants starter Nick Bierbrodt, all after two outs, to make it 3-2.

A wild Lee Guo-ching, who bailed out Yu in the top of the first, was pulled after facing just two batters in the third inning after he gave up a leadoff double to the Elephants

Chen Guan-ren uncorked a wild pitch that advanced the runner to third and walked the next batter to put runners at the corners.

In came Japanese reliever Shibakusa Hiroshi, who was unable to stop the Brother attack as he gave up an RBI groundout and forced in anther run by hitting an Elephants batter with the bases loaded to give the Elephants their second three-run lead at 5-2.

Trailing by three, the Bulls made the most of the next inning by ringing up three runs against the Elephants pitching when first baseman Hsu Guo-long drove a knee-high pitch from Bierbrodt five rows into the right-center field bleachers for a three-run blast that tied the game at 5-5.

Each team would add one more run in the fourth inning to make it 6-6.

Although the game ended in a tie, it was a big moral victory for the Bulls because they were able to escape from two tough jams unharmed, thanks to Dominican righty Alfredo Gonzalez, who recorded a clutch inning-ending groundout with the bases loaded upon entering the game in the fourth and struck out Chen Huai-shan in the fifth, again with the bases loaded, to keep his team in the game.
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