Pan Wu-hsiung’s RBI-single with two outs capped a six-run sixth for the President Lions as they overcame a five-run deficit to top the Chinatrust Whales 7-6 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Thursday night and sweep the two-game series.
The emerging third-year slugger played the hero for the second straight night with what ended up being the game-wining hit en route to his second game-MVP honor in as many games.
“It’s been one unbelievable run for me this year,” Pan said after the game.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
Pan set the new league record of six consecutive games with at least one home run for a local player earlier this season. The league record of seven for local and foreign players belongs to Pan’s teammate Tilson Brito of the Dominican Republic.
The Lions were on the receiving end of a fierce Whales attack that struck for six runs off starter Luther Hackman through the fifth to take a seemingly comfortable 6-1 lead, until the Lions offense finally awoke to rack up six big runs to overtake the Whales and stay in the lead until the end.
As for the Whales, what had been a great outing by starter Du Chang-wei through the fifth turned into a nightmare in the sixth with lefty Nee Fu-deh serving up three consecutive hits with runners in scoring position in relief of Du to force a tie before Pan’s clutch swing sank them for good.
Nee would end up with his 10th loss of the year and a blown save for failing to stop the Lions in the decisive sixth, while Hackman was credited with a surprising win despite allowing six runs (three earned) on eight hits over five innings to improve to 2-1 for the season.
Bears 9, Bulls 1
The La New Bears took care of business in their two-game series against the Sinon Bulls on the road with an impressive 9-1 triumph at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium on Thursday evening for their seventh win in the last 10 games.
A rejuvenated Chang Chih-jia, who starred for Taiwan at the Beijing Olympic Games earlier this month by saving the extra-inning win over Canada with a game-ending strikeout, was absolutely magnificent with eight strong innings of one-run ball to pick up his second win of the year.
Doing the damage at the plate for the rambunctious Bears were Chang’s fellow Olympians Shih Chih-wei and Lin Chih-sheng, whose combined 5-for-9 hitting with four RBIs were more than the Bulls could handle.
The Bears took a quick 2-0 lead in the opening frame on Shih’s two-run single off Bulls starter Lin Chi-wei and never looked back as they added two more in the fourth to lead it 4-1 before blowing the game wide open with a five-run seventh.
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