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Lions top China in Tokyo

President Lions designated hitter Chen Lien-hong hits a grand slam home run in the top of the seventh inning during the Lions' Konami Cup Asia Series baseball game against the China Stars in Tokyo yesterday. PHOTO: AFP

Chen Lien-hong's grand slam off China's Xu Zheng capped a six-run seventh as the President Lions overcame a 1-4 deficit to top the Chinese national squad 9-5 in Game 1 of the 2007 Konami Cup Asia Series in Tokyo Japan yesterday.

The veteran slugger, who also went deep in the ninth for his second homer in an amazing six-RBI outburst to help the Lions avoid what would have been an embarrassing loss to the Chinese side to open this year's competition in grand fashion.

The annual gathering of the champions from Japan's Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB), South Korea's Korean Baseball Organization (KBO), Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), and the Chinese national team saw the Lions trailing by as many as three runs through the first six innings before coming up big in a game-turning seventh to run away with the victory.

Kao Guo-ching's clutch single after Pan Wu-hsiung doubled in the top of the first gave the Lions a quick 1-0 lead before the China Stars answered with a pair of runs off Lions starter Nelson Figueroa in the bottom of the same inning to actually lead it 2-1.

The China Stars tacked on two more runs with Zhang Hongbo's run-scoring single in the second and a sacrifice fly by Liu Guangbiao in the fifth that had them thinking about an upset before Chen came to the rescue with his big bat to turn the game around in the seventh.

"All I wanted to do was to make contact, since we had the bases loaded, but I'll take the homer just as well," Chen said in the postgame interview, referring to his monstrous blast.

His younger brother Chen Chin-fong of the La New Bears also homered off China twice in last year's game, including the first-ever grand slam in the series' three-year history.

After grabbing their second lead of the game with a six-run seventh, the Lions sent Tsai Shih-chin to the mound in a scoreless eighth before closer Tseng Yi-cheng wrapped up the win in a one-run ninth to make it official.

Picking up the win for the Lions was Figueroa, who fell behind early but was able to keep his club in the game with a four-run effort, despite allowing a dozen hits over seven innings.

As for China, reliever Xu was tagged with the loss for serving up Chen Lien-hong's grand slam and Yang Seng's solo shot in the six-run seventh. He managed to record only one out against the seven batters he faced while allowing four hits and a pair of walks.

Contrary to what the final score might have suggested, the Chinese national team actually outhit the Lions by a 16-14 margin, showing considerable improvement.

Wyverns 6, Dragons 3

In yesterday's other game, Kim Kwang-hyun pitched six-and-two-third innings as South Korea's SK Wyverns defeated Japan's Chunichi Dragons 6-3. Kim, a 19-year-old rookie, gave up one run while striking out five to pick up the win.

Today's Game

The Lions will take on the Chunichi Dragons of Japan's NPB tonight at 5:30pm Taiwan time in a rematch of last year's title game, which was won by Japan's Nippon Ham Fighters.

Pan "Du Du" Wei-luen will try to end a three-game losing skid for Taiwan by taking his 16-2 regular-season record to the mound against a hard-hitting Chunichi lineup.

Even though it will be an uphill battle for the Lions, they may have a chance to pull off an upset if they can keep it a low-scoring affair.

Schedule

* Today

11:30pm: SK Wyverns v China Stars

5:30pm: Lions v Chunichi Dragons

* Tomorrow

11pm: Chunichi Dragons v China Stars

5pm: SK Wyverns v Lions

* Sunday

5pm: Final
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