Tempers flare as Bears quartet ejected from game

La New Bears players and team officials lose their cool in the match between the Bears and the Brother Elephants in Kaoshiung on Friday. PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES

Tempers flared in the contest between the Brother Elephants and the La New Bears in Kaohsiung on Friday.

Four Bears players were ejected from the game that ended in a 5-5 draw for charging the first-base and home plate umpire on two different occasions.

Lin Chih-sheng was the first to lose his cool during the bottom of the ninth after he and a teammate were both called out by the first-base umpire on two very close plays that ended with Lin being tossed out of the game.

Play resumed after the ejection of Lin and went into extra innings until Bears skipper Hong Yi-chung charged the home plate umpire after a questionable called third strike that ended the inning with a runner in scoring position.

Huang Jung-chung, Pan Chung-wei and Chen Fong-min followed suit and were ejected for unsportsmanlike conduct.

The game started with the home Bears taking a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, a lead they held until the top of the sixth when Chen Rei-cheng’s sacrifice-fly to right made it 2-1.

La New tacked on a pair of runs in the bottom of the same inning on Tseng Hao-jui’s two-run single with two outs to make it 4-1 only to see the Elephants counter with two runs of their own in the top of the seventh by Huang Cheng-wei and Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min.

After the Bears added their fifth run of the game to open a 5-3 lead in the bottom of the seventh, the Elephants struck again with a run-scoring double by Chen “Golden Warrior” Chih-yuan before a wild pitch by Bears closer Suzuki Makoto scored the tying run from third to send the game into extra innings.

Whales 13, T-Rex 12

Homers lit up the Sinjhuang sky on Friday night in a high-scoring affair as T-Rex held off a tenacious ninth-inning rally to prevail in a 13-12 decision.

Hitters from both teams teed off against the opposing pitchers with five combined homers on the night; two by the Whales’ Carlos Villalobos and a grand slam by fellow slugger Lu Jung-hsiung. T-Rex’s Hsieh “the Ugly” Jia-shien and Chen Yuan-jia also went deep.

The Whales wasted little time adjusting to T-Rex starter Lai Jung-nan as they scored two runs in the top of the first against the rookie lefty on Villalobos’ two-run shot.

The T-Rex hitters then went to work against Whales starter Shen Yu-jeh who lasted less than an inning with nine runs allowed on six hits and a pair of walks.

Leading 9-2, T-Rex added to their lead in the fourth when Napoleon Calzado doubled off Whales reliever Liu Yu-chan and advanced to third on a wild pitcher before scoring on Wang Chuan-jia’s sacrifice fly two batters later.

The seemingly commanding 10-2 lead was anything but as the Whales scored six runs in the top of the fifth to pull within a deuce of T-Rex in a 10-8 ball game.

They twice reduced the deficit to a run but dmedia hung on.