Six late-inning runs by the Macoto Cobras helped turn a 1-2 deficit into a sizable 7-3 win over the La New Bears in Kaohsiung on Saturday night to end a two-game losing skid for the serpents.
Down by a run in a classic pitchers' duel, the visiting Cobras capitalized on a fielding error by Bears centerfielder Huang Long-yi by scoring three runs in the eighth and added three more in the ninth to pull away.
Kao Wei's two-out double off Hsu Yu-wei sparked the scoring for the Cobras in the eighth as Hsieh "The Ugly" Jia-shien followed with an RBI single before Lin "The Wild Hog" Hong-yuan capped it off with a fly ball to center that Huang overran, allowing both runners to score.
Starter Chang Hsin-chih outpitched his older brother Hsu with seven innings of three-run ball on five hits to earn his eighth win of the season.
Shih Chih-wei's blooper to left field was ruled a double even though Lin would be the first to admit that he should have come up with the catch, and that put the Bears 2-0 ahead in the bottom of the first.
After a scoreless second and third, the Cobras finally got on the board in the fourth when Chiou Chang-rong came up with a clutch two-out single to halve the deficit.
That was all the scoring that either offense could muster through the seventh against the solid pitching of Chang and Hsu before the fatal fielding error by Huang in the eighth opened the floodgates.
"It's one of those games that you hate to see anyone lose, but someone had to take the hit," a disappointed Hsu said after the game, seemingly none too pleased to have lost against his younger brother.
Tagged with the loss was Bears reliever Jiang Bo-ching who was charged with two unearned runs on a hit to drop to 4-3 for the year.
Whales 9, Bulls 4
The Chinatrust Whales bounced back from a tough loss to the top-ranked President Lions earlier this week with a 9-4 road victory over the Sinon Bulls in Taichung on Saturday evening for their fifth win in seven games.
Su Tseh-yi won his second straight start since returning from a demotion to the bullpen by tossing six strong innings of one-run ball on six hits.
He was able to pitch out of several two-on with one-out jams over the first three innings without giving up a run by getting some key outs to keep the damage at a minimum en route to the win.
Offensively for the Whales, speedy outfielder Gee Jung-lin led all hitters with a 4-for-5 night while Carlos Villalobos, Hsu Ren-jeh and Tseng Jia-shien each knocked in a pair of runs.
Failure to come up with the timely hits ultimately cost the Bulls the win as they batted a combined 2-for-10 with runners in scoring position to strand a dozen in the game.
Picking up the loss for the Bulls was starter Alfredo Gonzalez who fell behind early and never recovered as he allowed five runs (only two earned) on seven hits over six-and-two-third innings to drop to 6-6 for the year.
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