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CPBL: La New Bears rally to beat Brother Elephants

La New Bears players bow in Kaohsiung on Saturday to apologize for a scuffle that took place during their game the day before. PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES

Chen Chin-fong’s two-run single capped a three-run seventh for the La New Bears as they rallied from a two-run deficit to top the Brother Elephants 3-2 at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Saturday.

The win not only helped the Bears reclaim the top spot in the league standings, but also extended their unbeaten streak to seven in a row.

Wang Cheng-wei’s sharp double down the third base line with runners on second and third knocked in a pair of runs for the Elephants in the top of the third to give them a 2-0 lead.

That was all the runs that either team could score through the sixth, as Elephants starter Kobayashi Ryokan of Japan pitched six innings of shutout ball despite allowing a total of six hits, while Mike Johnson of Canada also ran a tight ship.

Kobayashi’s luck run out in the seventh when he surrendered three-straight singles after recording an out to allow the Bears’ first run of the game.

With men on first and second, Elephants reliever Tseng Jia-min struck out the next batter for the second out of the inning, before walking the following batter to load up the bases for Chen’s game-clincher.

The Elephants had a chance to even things up in the top of the eighth, when they had runners at the corners with one out against Bears setup man Lee Fong-hua.

But the Elephants blew it, the next batter bouncing the ball right back to Lee, who gratefully accepted the ball for an inning-ending double play.

He then worked a relatively easy inning in the ninth to preserve the win for Johnson, who was credited with his league-leading third win of the season.

Taking the loss for the Elephants was Kobayashi, who took a shutout into the seventh before allowing the Bears to turn the game around. He was charged with all three runs for the Bears on nine hits, while striking out nine and walking one.

Bulls 6, Lions 4

The Sinon Bulls used a big seventh inning to turn a 2-4 deficit into a 6-4 win over the President Lions in Taichung for their third-straight victory.

The bulls found themselves 2-0 down in the top of the second when the Lions’ Hsu Sheng-jeh connected on a two-out single with the bases loaded to score the runners from second and third.

The Bulls managed to tie the game up at 2-all with a run each in the fourth and fifth on RBI singles by Tseng Hua-wei and Chang “Red Monkey” Jia-hao, but the Lions restored the two-run margin in the sixth, courtesy of a run-scoring walk issued by Bulls starter Yang Jien-fu and a sacrifice-fly by Kao chih-kang.

The lead lasted less than an inning as the Bulls struck for four runs in the seventh, highlighted by Cheng Hong-da’s bases-clearing, three-run double to put his team ahead for good.

Picking up the win for the Bulls was reliever Yu Wen-pin, who relieved Yang in the seventh and kept the Lions batters at bay.

For the Lions, third-year lefty Yen Chuen-hao was tagged with the loss for allowing three of the Bulls’ four game-turning runs in the seventh.
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