Jim Magrane tossed eight strong innings of one-run ball, Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min went a solid three-for-four with a pair of doubles and an RBI, and the Brother Elephants defeated the Sinon Bulls 4-1 at the Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon.
The win avenged back-to-back losses to the Bulls on the two previous nights, avoiding a three-game sweep at the hands of the league-leaders.
The men in the golden uniforms wasted little time getting to Sinon starter Lindsay Gulin with consecutive doubles by “Chia Chia” and Chou Si-Chi to plate their first run of the game in the bottom of the second.
PHOTO: LIN CHENG-KUN, TAIPEI TIMES
DOUBLE
Even though the Bulls answered in the top of the third when Chen Chih-wei led off the inning with a double and scored two batters later on Chang Jien-ming’s RBI-single up the middle to tie the game up at 1-1, that was as close as they got.
RIGHTY
American right-hander Magrane quickly settled in and shut down the Sinon attack the rest of the way by allowing only two more hits through the eighth to give his offense a chance to help him win his league-leading third game of the season.
The go-ahead run for the Elephants came in the bottom of the fourth when Huang Shih-hao came up big with a single to right-center to score Peng, who smoked a double down the third-base line to lead off the inning and advanced to third one out later.
Peng and Huang would drive in one more run each in the fifth, making it 4-1 in favor of the Elephants, a lead they held all the way to the final out of the contest.
Suffering his first loss of the season was Gulin, who lasted only 4-1/3 innings with four allowed runs on nine hits in a disappointing outing.
His offense did not exactly stand behind him, scoring only one run off the stingy Elephant pitching to lose one long before the final out in the ninth.
BEARS 8 LIONS 3
Five runs in the top of the fourth broke a 1-all tie wide open to help the La New Bears trip up the Uni-President Lions in an 8-3 final at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium yesterday.
The victory clinched the three-game weekend series for the Bears who had been roughed up by the Lions the night before in a 9-1 loss.
The top of the order did all the damage for the Bears with Shih Yen-wei, Yu Jin-deh and Lin Chih-sheng accounting for seven combined hits with three RBIs on the night, which easily made a winner out of starter Christopher Lee Mason.
The 25-year-old from North Carolina improved to 2-1 for the year, pitching six solid innings of one-run ball.
ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY STAFF WRITER
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