CPBL: Chang “Prince of the Forest” Tai-shan batted a perfect 5-for-5 with three RBIs and eight total bases to rally the Sinon Bulls past the President Lions 8-4 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Sunday to snap a three-game losing skid.
The three-time home run champ and the league’s career home run and RBI leader took matter in his own hands after finding his team down 1-4 through the sixth by beating out a grounder to short that started what ended up being a four-run seventh before delivering a two-run triple in the eighth to ice the game.
“It was a big win for us considering the fact that we hadn’t won all week long,” the Prince said after the game. His Bulls had quietly dropped three in a row after sweeping the dmedia T-Rex last weekend to fall within two games of the top-ranked La New Bears, and the win just might get them back on the winning track.
The contest began with the Bulls striking first in the top of the first on an RBI single by Chang before the Lions dialed up four runs in the bottom of the same innings on a pair of doubles and a single to take a 4-1 lead.
That lead would last through the sixth with neither offense able to convert against starters Lin Chi-wei (Bulls) and Lin Cheng-fong (Lions) in a suddenly defensive struggle, setting the stage for the Bulls’ late-game comeback.
Picking up the win on behalf of the Bulls despite falling behind early was Lin Chi-wei who improved to 5-4 for the year while the Lions’ Shen Bo-chang was tagged with the loss for allowing four hits during the game-deciding seventh in his first defeat of the season.
Bears 4, Elephants 4, 8 INNINGS
The La New Bears played to a 4-4 draw against the Brother Elephants in a rain-shortened affair at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu on Sunday night.
It might have been a tie in the scorebook, but the moral victory definitely belonged to the Bears, who fell behind 0-4 after three innings of play by serving up two runs each during the second and third before turning the table on the Elephants.
Trailing 0-4, the top-ranked Bears would ring up three runs in the top of the fourth on back-to-back RBI-doubles by Gary Burnham and Shih Chih-wei off Elephants starter Huang Rong-yi before Chen Fong-min knocked in the third run in the inning with a groundout to second that made it 3-4.
With the momentum on their side after a rain-induced delay, the Bears would put together one more surge in the seventh with an two-out single by Lin Chih-sheng to score the runner from second for the game-tying run.
After a scoreless eighth, the rain was more than the home plate umpire and the league official on hand could handle as they settled it then and there in what would end up as a 4-4 draw.
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