Tseng Hao-jui’s two-out triple in the bottom of the fourth broke a 7-7 tie for the La New Bears, who went on to defeat the playoff-bound Uni-President Lions 9-7 at the Kaohsiung County Baseball Stadium on Sunday.
The tie-breaking run came on the back of two Lions runs in both the third and the fourth, giving the Bears a much needed morale boost and avoiding what would have been an embarrassing loss in front of a home crowd in their season finale.
The slugfest, which featured 16 combined runs on 27 hits, saw the visitors jump to an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first on Cheng Nai-wen’s three-run homer off Bears starter Hsu Wen-hsiung.
The lead lasted less than an inning as the Bears answered by sending a dozen men to the plate for seven runs in the bottom of the first off Lions starter Nerio “N-Rod” Rodriguez.
After Tseng’s go-ahead triple gave the Bears an 8-7 lead, they tacked on an insurance run against the defending champs in the fifth with Tsai Tsong-yo’s opposite-field single off Rodriguez.
That was enough for Bears veteran Chang Chih-jia, who entered in the sixth and delivered four impeccable innings of relief to win his 10th game of the year.
A pair of errors by the Lions defense led to five unearned runs and left N-Rod with the loss.
BULLS 11, ELEPHANTS 5
Seven big runs in the fourth by the Sinon Bulls erased an early deficit as they topped the Brother Elephants 11-5 at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium on Sunday to deal the slumping Elephants their fifth straight loss.
Starter Lin Keh-chien was the biggest beneficiary of the seven-run fourth as it gave the rookie a 7-3 lead, allowing manager Hsu Sheng-ming to keep him in the game long enough for his 10th win of the season despite Lin giving up back-to-back homers in the first.
Cheng Da-hong, Chen Chih-wei and Wilton Veras connected for three hits each to account for seven of the Bulls’ 11 runs.
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