Shih Chih-wei's timely single with a runner on second scored the go-ahead run in the bottom of the eighth and Tsai Ying-fong pitched a perfect ninth to preserve the 6-5 win for the La New Bears over the Sinon Bulls in Taichung on Sunday evening.
The clutch single by the Bears infielder was his second hit on a 2-for-5 night, giving him a team-high 23 multi-hit games in the 59 regular season contests thus far.
The classic seesaw battle that saw the Bears overcome four deficits before Shih's eighth-inning heroics ultimately put them ahead for good.
Each team scored a first-inning run with the Bulls' Cheng Jau-han hitting a sacrifice fly to deep-right and the Bears' Chen Chin-fong singling in a runner from third.
After a scoreless second, the Bulls struck again with a run each in the third and the fourth, the former on Chang "Prince of the Forest" Tai-shan's solo homer off Bears starter Hsu Chih-hua, the latter courtesy of Yang Jin-hsiung's RBI single to take a 3-1 lead.
Lin Jin-ping's two-run shot off the Bulls' Lee Guo-ching quickly evened things up at 3-all before they played to a 5-5 tie to set the stage for Shih's game-winning hit in the eighth.
"That was one heck of a game," a smiling Shih said after the game.
Picking up the win for the Bears was reliever Jiang Bo-ching who entered with two outs in the seventh after the Bulls had scored a run and got his team out of the jam by inducing a lazy fly out to end the inning. He retired all four of the batters he faced.
Suffering the loss was Bulls closer Kuo Yong-chih who left a pitch up for Shih and knew right away that Shih had jumped all over it for a game-winning hit.
Lions 9, Elephants 2
The President Lions made it five in a row with a 9-2 win over the Brother Elephants in Tianmu on Sunday to complete the two-game weekend sweep.
The win moved the Lions one full game in front of the Macoto Cobras for the sole possession of the lead in the league standings.
Tilson Brito hit his league-leading 24th homer of the season, a three-run shot off the Elephants' Yeh Yong-jeh to give the Lions a comfortable 4-0 advantage in the third before they erupted for five more in the fourth to lead it 9-0.
That was more than ample for President starter Pete Munro who took a shutout one out into the sixth before a defensive error by the Lions led to an unearned run that broke up the shutout bid for the American southpaw. He would end the night with seven strong innings of one-run ball on five hits for his eighth win of the year.
Offensively for the Lions, Pan Wu-hsung, Kao Guo-ching, and Chen Lien-hong also had multi-hit games as the threesome drove in five runs to account for the bulk of the team's run production.
Lack of timely hits ultimately cost the Elephants the game as their nine scattered singles netted them just two runs (one earned) in the game compared to the Lions' ten hits which resulted in the nine runs that they managed to ring up off three different Brother pitchers.
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