Liu Yu-cheng’s two-run single highlighted a six-run eighth as the Uni-President Lions overcame a four-run deficit late in the game to top the Sinon Bulls 10-8 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium on Saturday evening.
The win not only avenged a 5-0 shutout loss to the Bulls the night before for the Lions, but also nipped a two-game skid for them as they looked to keep pace with the top-ranked Brother Elephants who also won on the night in a heated race to win the second-half title.
Three consecutive singles off Sinon starter Lin Ying-jeh got the home Cats on the board in the bottom of the first before Liu Fu-hao’s two-run blast and Cheng Nai-wen’s RBI single made it 4-0 in the same inning.
That would not rattle the Bulls as they scored the next five runs against Nerio Rodriguez to take a 5-4 lead by the end of the fourth.
Sinon would add three more runs to their lead in the seventh and eighth in a seemingly comfortable 8-4 game before the potent Lions attack countered with a big eighth to chase the visitors out of town.
“It’s one of those games where you think you have it won, but you end up losing,” a disappointed Sinon skipper Hsu Sheng-ming said after the game.
Picking up the surprising win for the Lions was Lin Yueh-ping who tossed a scoreless ninth to win his fourth of the year while the loss went to the Bulls’ Ricardo Rodriguez, who allowed all three of the batters he faced in the decisive eighth in his seventh defeat of the season.
ELEPHANTS 7, BEARS 6
Tempers flared in the contest between the Brother Elephants and the La New Bears at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Saturday night where the Elephants won by a narrow 7-6 margin.
Brother catcher Kuo Yi-fong was so furious about a safe call made by home plate umpire Wang Jung-hong on a close tag at home he threw the ball hard against the ground in protest. The misconduct would draw an ejection from the game for the veteran catcher.
Brother pitcher Lee Hao-ren was also tossed for throwing a high pitch inside to the Bears’ Chung Cheng-yo that was ruled intentional even though the ball barely touched Chung’s helmet.
As for the game, the men in the golden uniforms scored three early runs over the first two frames, but quickly gave the lead back to the Bears when they surrendered six unanswered runs to the visitors to fall behind 3-6 after the fifth.
It took the Elephants five singles and a hit batsman on top of an error by the La New outfielder in a three-run seventh to tie the game up at 6-6 before they went ahead for good on a clutch single by Chen Guan-ren in the ninth that won it.
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