The Uni-President Lions teed off against the Sinon pitching squad with 14 runs on a season-high 21 hits to trounce the Bulls 14-1 at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium on Friday night.
The impressive road victory not only nipped a two-game slide for the defending champs, but also helped them maintain a half-game lead over the top-ranked La New Bears.
Kao Guo-ching’s sacrifice fly following back-to-back singles from Pan Wu-hsiung and Chen Lien-hong got the Lions on the board in the top of the first before the Bulls fought back and tied the game at 1-all on the strength of three second-inning singles off Lions starter Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES
But that was all the damage the Bulls could do as the Lions went on a rampage over the next four frames, plating 11 unanswered runs off two Sinon pitchers — highlighted by a base-clearing three-run double and a two-run homer by Kao Chih-kang — to jump to a 12-1 lead.
Two more runs by the Lions in the eighth wrapped up the scoring as Du Du picked up his fourth win of the year, with the Lions ace allowing just one run on eight hits over six innings.
In his worst performance of the year, Bulls starter Lin Ying-jeh tied a career-high of seven runs allowed on eight hits over three innings.
BEARS 13, ELEPHANTS 7
The Brother Elephants dug themselves a seven-run hole and never recovered as they dropped a 13-7 decision to the La New Bears at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday to start the weekend on a whimper.
Starter Iyono Takateru failed to keep a rare first-inning lead from his hitters by surrendering a pair of singles and doubles on top of three walks in a six-run second. He then served a homer to Timothy Raines Jr in the third to fall behind 7-1.
Even though the Elephants’ offense would score at least a run in each of the final four innings for a total of seven, it wasn’t enough to make up for their generous pitching staff, which allowed six more runs.
Bears starter Hsu Wen-hsiung earned his second win of the season with six decent innings of three-run ball on five hits, improving to 2-3 for the year.
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