Wang Jung-tai’s two-out single with runners on second and third broke a 2-2 tie to lift the Brother Elephants past the Sinon Bulls 5-3 on Sunday for a sweep of the three-game weekend series at Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu.
The second-year catcher from National Chiayi University made skipper Nakagomi Sin look like a genius. Sin sent in a speedier Wang to pinch run for Kuo Yi-fong in a scoreless tie after the veteran catcher had doubled off Sinon starter Lin Ying-jeh with two outs in the bottom of the fifth.
Wang not only ran back the Elephants’ first run of the game on the ensuing single by Chen Jiang-heh, but topped it with a clutch two-run single of his own in what ended up being a three-run sixth to give his team a 4-2 lead. The Elephants maintained a two-point lead for the rest of the game.
Also starring for the men in the golden uniform was Chen Guan-ren, who went 2-for-4 with a pair of RBIs to extend his hitting streak to six straight. The veteran slugger has had at least one hit in all but two of the 10 games he has played since rejoining the team in the middle of last month after suffering a broken arm in the first week of the season that had sidelined him for nearly four months.
Starter Liao “the Golden Submarine” Yu-cheng was credited with the win for allowing three runs on five hits and four walks over six innings to beat his counterpart Lin, who lasted through the fifth with two allowed runs but fell victim to a lack of run support.
LIONS 1, BEARS 0
Kuo Dai-chi’s RBI double in the bottom of the eighth proved decisive as the Uni-President Lions blanked the La New Bears at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Sunday to sweep their weekend series against their arch-rivals.
Neither offense was able to plate a run through the seventh against the solid pitching of starters Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen (Lions) and Hsu Wen-hsiung (Bears) as the highly anticipated pitchers’ duel lived up to its billing.
It took a leadoff walk issued by Bears reliever Tseng Jau-hao to put a Lions runner on first in the bottom of the eighth and set the stage for Kuo’s game-winning swing.
The hapless Bears, who lost eight in a row to tie the team mark for longest losing skid this year, managed to put a runner on in the top of the ninth against Lions closer Lin Yueh-ping when Tseng Hao-jui singled for the tying run. That was as close as they got as Huang Long-yi grounded to short for the game-ending out.
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