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CPBL 2008: President Lions bounce back to defeat Elephants

Chang Jien-ming of the Sinon Bulls, left, makes a successful slide to home base before Wang Yi-min of the Chinatrust Whales can force him out during their CPBL game in Chiayi City yesterday. The Bulls won 5-3. PHOTO: CHAN CHAO-YANG, TAIPEI TIMES

The President Lions salvaged a one-game series-split against the Brother Elephants by doubling up on the Elephants in a 6-3 win in Taitung on Sunday to close out the four-game week with a 3-1 record.

Following Friday night's embarrassing 3-13 loss to these same Elephants in front of a disappointed Tainan crowd, the defending champions needed a fast start to get things moving in the right direction.

And that was exactly what they got as they teed off against Brother starter Yeh Yong-jeh with five second-inning runs, two singles and three doubles on top of a costly error by the Elephants defense to lead 5-0.

Pan Wu-hsiung's two-run double with two outs capped the five-run spurt, sending the Lions fans in Taitung to their feet.

Even though the Elephants would chip away at the Lions lead by scoring a single run in each of the third, fifth and sixth to fall within a deuce of the Lions, that was as close as they got as the defending champions added an insurance run in the top of the seventh courtesy of Pan's RBI-groundout to second.

The third-year outfielder for the Lions ended up with three RBIs, half of his team's runs.

Earning his first win of the season in front of the home crowd was Lions starter and Taitung native Chang Chih-chiang, who allowed three runs, one earned, on seven hits while fanning four and walking two over five-and-a-third innings of work to even his season record at 1-1.

Suffering the loss with a sub-par performance off the mound was Elephants starter Yeh, who fell victim to a costly error that led to three unearned runs during the game-deciding second.

Bulls 5, Whales 3

Tseng Hua-wei's two-out single with men on first and second broke a 3-3 tie in the top of the sixth as the Sinon Bulls held on to prevail over the Chinatrust Whales in Chiayi on Sunday.

The speedy outfielder, who has been troubled by a series of injuries over the past two seasons, drove the ball just beyond the reach of the Whales fielder with a chopper between first and second to score the runner from second before Cheng Da-hong followed with another run-scoring single on the next play to put the Bulls ahead 5-3 in the top of the sixth.

That was more than ample for the Bulls bullpen as rookie right-hander Lin Chi-wei took over in the sixth, pitching four shutout innings of two-hit relief to preserve the win for fellow starter Iba Tomokazu of Japan.

Whales lefty Nee Fu-deh was tagged with the loss for allowing all five of the Bulls runs on 14 hits over five-and-two-thirds innings of play.

Even though he did strike out a season-high six during the game, it did not prevent him from his first defeat of the year as the Bulls hitters proved too much for him to handle.
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