Luther Hackman tossed eight strong innings of two-run ball, while Kuo Dai-chi and Marshall McDougall each drove in a pair of runs as the Uni-President Lions humbled the Sinon Bulls 6-2 at the Taichung Municipal Baseball Stadium last night to win the weekend series 2-1.
It was the third straight quality start for the US veteran, who remained unbeaten at 3-0 in the three starts he has had so far after spending more than a month on the sidelines at the start of the season with an injury.
As for McDougall, the pair of RBIs also upped his team-best total to 25 for the season, good enough for third-best in the league.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The visiting Cats actually fell behind 0-1 in the third inning when the Bulls scored their first run of the contest on a fielding error by Lions shortstop Wang Tzu-song.
After five scoreless innings, the Lions would finally wake up and pull off three runs in the sixth, courtesy of an RBI single by Kuo and a two-run double by McDougall.
Three more runs by the Lion offense in the seventh quickly upped their lead to an insurmountable 6-1.
Even though the home Bulls would plate a run in the eighth off Hackman, that was as close as they got as Jerome Williams retired the final three Sinon batters with a perfect ninth to preserve the win.
Bulls starter Eric Junge cruised through to the fifth inning unharmed with a one-hitter, but stumbled in the sixth with three allowed runs on four hits to lose his second game of the season.
ELEPHANTS 7, BEARS 4
The Brother Elephants scored three unanswered runs in the seventh and eighth innings to break a 4-4 deadlock and then held on to beat the La New Bears 7-4 at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu last night.
The win not only ended a two-game slide for the men in the golden uniform, but also avoided what would have been a three-game sweep at the hands of the Bears.
After Chen Chih-pong’s two-run single capped a three-run sixth that gave the Elephants a 4-1 lead, the Bears returned the favor by scoring three in the very next inning to tie the game at 4-4.
That was when the Elephants’ bats came alive once more as they mustered the next three runs to win it 7-4.
Carlos Castillo was credited with the win, while the loss went to the Bears’ Luis Villarreal.
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