CPBL: Nineteenth season starts with a bang

Lai Ming-wei, who appeared in the reality TV show One Million Star, throws out the first pitch of the 19th CPBL season in Tainan on Sunday. PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUNG, TAIPEI TIMES

Homers lit up the Tainan sky in the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) season opener on Sunday in which the President Lions outslugged the La New Bears 14-9.

The highly anticipated rematch between last season's Taiwan Series finalists saw Chen Lien-hong and Kao Guo-ching combining for three long balls on the night, including a grand slam apiece, to humble the Bears.

Chen recorded seven RBIs and Kao five in the highest-scoring season opener in league history, topping the previous mark of 17 set by the Macoto Cobras (now the dmedia T-Rex) and the Sinon Bulls in 2006.

In a game that featured five lead changes it was the Bears that drew first blood in the top of the first, Lin Chih-sheng's liner up the middle off Lions starter Gregory Wiltshire of Australia giving the visitors a 1-0 lead.

The Lions answered with Chen's first homer of the game, a grand slam off Bears starter Mike Johnson of Canada, to make it 4-1.

Both teams scored in the second before the Bears scored five straight through Gary Burnham's RBI single to center and a pair of two-run singles by Chen Fong-min and Lin.

With the Bears leading 7-5 in the bottom of the fourth, Kao smoked an offering from Johnson with the bases loaded to record four runs and secure a 9-7 lead.

After three scoreless innings, the Bears went on the offensive again with a pair of runs off Lions reliever Tsai Shih-chin to tie the game up at 9-all in the top of the eighth.

But the Lions made sure that the 6,000-plus crowd would not go home disappointed by nailing five unanswered runs in the bottom of the eighth, highlighted by Chen's three-run blast, to seal the victory.

Lefty reliever Yen Chuen-hao was credited with the win for tossing a hitless eighth, while his counterpart Lee Fong-hua suffered the loss for giving up the go-ahead run to the Lions in the eighth.

Kao was named MVP for knocking in the winning run on top of belting a grand slam on a five-RBI outing, although Chen arguably had a better game.