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‘Chia Chia’ helps snap Elephants’ three-game skid

Chang Chia-yuan of the Sinon Bulls, left, catches out Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min of the Brother Elephants in Hsinchu on Thursday.  PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES

Heads-up base-running by Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min on a mishandled relay throw following a fly out to right scored the game-wining run in the bottom of the 10th as the Brother Elephants edged past the Chinatrust Whales 6-5 at the Hsinchu Municipal Baseball Stadium on Thursday night.

The veteran slugger challenged the Whales defense with an aggressive move on the base path by trying to reach third on a routine fly out to right. And the move paid off as the relay throw from right was mishandled by the Whales’ second baseman, giving Peng a chance to beat out an off throw at the plate for the game-winner.

Also starring was catcher Kuo Yi-fong, who knocked in four of the six runs for the Elephants on a 2-for-5 night with a home run to pocket the game-MVP honor.

The win not only snapped a three-game losing skid for the Elephants, but also helped salvage a two-game split in the series after Tuesday night’s tough loss in extra innings to the marine creatures by an identical score.

Kuo’s three-run blast off Whales starter Du Chang-wei gave the Elephants a quick 3-0 lead in the bottom of the second before the Whales got two of the runs back in the fourth to make it 3-2.

The Elephants tacked on a run each in the sixth and seventh to lead it 5-2, only to see the Whales answer with two runs in the eighth before knotting the match up at 5-all with a ninth-inning run off Elephants closer Matthew Perisho.

Bulls 9, T-Rex 6

Scoring early and often, the Sinon Bulls erupted for nine runs on 17 hits to top the previously red-hot dmedia T-Rex 9-6 at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium on Wednesday and snuff out the T-Rex’s four-game winning streak.

Homers by Chang “Prince of the Forest” Tai-shan and Lin Tsong-nan off T-Rex starter Chen Jia-hong over the first two innings helped the Bulls build a 7-2 lead which they never relinquished.

That was more than enough for Sinon starter Lin Chih-wei, who pitched five decent innings of four-run ball to earn his seventh win of the year.

Lions 8, Bears 5

The Uni-President Lions needed a four-run burst in the top of the ninth, highlighted by Kao Chih-kang’s RBI-single to left, to top the La New Bears 8-5 at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Wednesday to overtake the lead in the latest standings.

With the second-half title at stake and the Bears hanging on to a slim half-game lead heading into the contest, the Lions quickly found themselves down 0-2 when Chung Cheng-yo launched a two-run shot to left off starter Louis Pote.

Kao Chih-kang’s sacrifice fly in the fourth halved the Bears’ lead to 2-1, only to have the home Bears pull ahead again by a deuce in the sixth on a clutch two-out triple by Tsai Jien-wei.

Trailing 1-4, the Lions managed to rally for three runs in the seventh on run-scoring-doubles by Tilson Brito and Liu Fu-hao and an RBI groundout from Kao Guo-ching to tie the game at 4-4.

With the momentum clearly swinging in the Lions’ favor, they struck for four big runs in the top of the ninth and held on to win it 8-5.

Picking up the win for the Lions was right-hander Tsai Shih-chin, who tossed two innings of scoreless relief for his first victory of the year, while his counterpart Huang Jung-chung was dealt the loss for giving up the go-ahead run in the dreadful ninth for his third setback of the year.


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