Nearly losing an eight-run lead in the top of the ninth, the La New Bears held on for dear life to escape with an 11-9 win over the dmedia T-Rex at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Wednesday night to start their week with a “W.”
Heading into the final frame with a seemingly secure 11-3 lead, the Bears sent reliever Huang Chin-chih to the mound against his former team looking to close out the deal without too much trouble.
Instead, the lefty allowed the first batter he faced to reach on a single before serving up a two-run homer to Lu Yo-hua to start what ended up being a six-run ninth.
PHOTO: HUANG CHIH-YUAN, TAIPEI TIMES
This forced skipper Hung Yi-chung to send in his third pitcher of the inning, closer Jermaine Van Buren, to apply the tourniquet en route to their fifth victory in seven chances.
Doing the damage for the Bears with his big bat was Chen Chin-fong who drove in five of the Bears’ 11 runs on a 3-for-5 night to surpass the President Lions’ Tilson Brito for the top spot in most RBIs this season with 68 (in 61 games).
Picking up his seventh win of the year to improve to 7-3 was Bears starter Hsu Wen-hsiung, who held a potent dmedia attack to three runs on seven hits over seven solid innings before the late-game collapse nearly cost him the win.
As for the hapless T-Rex, losers in nine of their last dozen games, the late-game rally was too little too late.
ELEPHANTS 10 , LIONS 5
Kuo Yi-fong’s two-run blast sparked a four-run eighth as the red-hot Brother Elephants doubled up on the President Lions 10-5 at the Hsinchu Municipal Baseball Stadium on Wednesday to extend their non-losing streak to six games.
The Elephants jumped to a quick 3-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI double by Chen Guan-ren and a two-run throwing error by the Lions shortstop on what would have been an inning-ending double play.
The lead would stand for the next five innings before the Elephants struck for three more runs in the seventh to make it 6-0.
Down by a half-dozen, the Lions finally got to Elephants starter Danny Core in the bottom of the seventh with five hits and a walk that chased the US righty. Core would be charged with all five of the Lions runs in the inning, which cut the once-comfortable Elephants lead to a lone run before the four-run eighth by the Elephants offense saved the day in the end.
Core was credited with his sixth victory of the year despite an awful seventh to beat fellow countryman Louis Pote of the Lions, who lasted one out into the seventh before being pulled in his fourth setback of the year.
WHALES 4, BULLS 3
The Chinatrust Whales needed a three-run blast from Tseng Jia-shien in the top of the ninth to rally past the Sinon Bulls 4-3 at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium in their week-opener on Tuesday.
It was the second straight game that the third-year infielder had won for the marine creatures with his big bat late in the game; the first coming by way of a two-run homer in the Whales’ 9-5 come-from-behind win over the T-Rex in Douliou last Saturday.
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