Huang Shih-hao’s two-run blast with two outs over the left-field wall off Lin Yueh-ping broke a 4-4 tie in the top of the 10th as the Brother Elephants scored five unanswered runs to defeat the Uni-President Lions 6-4 at the Greater Kaohsiung Baseball Stadium last night.
The win not only clinched the weekend series for the men in their familiar gold uniforms, but more importantly saw the last-placed team leapfrog the Sinon Bulls in the standings as the two teams traded places for the second straight day.
Chang Cheng-wei led off the game with a sharp liner to left and scored three batters later on Chang Ming-yen’s RBI single to give the Elephants a quick 1-0 advantage, only to see the Lions answer with four big runs in the bottom of the same inning, highlighted by Kuo Jung-yo’s three-run triple that made it 4-1.
Photo: Chang Chung-yi, Taipei Times
Neither offense scored another run over the next four innings, with starters Cheng Chi-hong (Elephants) and Tsai Jing-hao (Lions) holding their ground, until the Elephants’ offense decided to up their game a notch three runs in the sixth to even things up at 4-4, a score that stood through the ninth, before Huang’s extra-inning magic won it in the end.
Picking up his third win of the season for the Elephants was reliever Lee Fong-hua, who tossed two scoreless innings of one-hit ball to beat his counterpart, Lin Yueh-ping, who served up Huang’s game-winner in his fourth defeat of the year.
Monkeys 6 , Bulls 2
Erupting for five runs in the bottom of the fifth, the Lamigo Monkeys broke an 1-1 game wide open and held on to defeat the Sinon Bulls at the Douliou County Baseball Stadium last night to avoid a series sweep.
Back-to-back singles by Chen Yen-fong and Tsai jien-wei set up Shih Chih-wei’s two-run double to jumpstart the big inning, before Kuo Ten-wen’s bases-loaded two-bagger knocked in three more runs to put his team ahead 6-1 in an otherwise close match.
Newcomer Bryan Corey of the US allowed a run on seven hits in five effective innings to pick up victory No. 1 on his debut in Taiwan, giving the Bulls’ hitters new problems they are not familiar with.
Sinon starter Yang Jien-fu was rock solid through the first four frames, allowing a lone run on a pair of hits in the opening inning, before cruising through the fourth without further damage.
However, his luck ran out in the fifth when the Monkeys’ hitters finally got to him with some quick swings to put the game away long before the ninth.
The win marked Monkeys skipper Hung Yi-chung’s 350th in just 655 games, making him the fastest manager to reach the 350-win plateau, topping the previous mark set by former Weichuan Dragons and Sinon Bulls skipper Hsu Sheng-ming, who needed 714 games to reach victory No. 350.
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