Huang En-tzu’s two-out double with a runner on second scored the tiebreaking run in the bottom of the eighth for the Uni-President Lions as they went on to win 5-4 at the Douliou County Baseball Stadium last night to claim the weekend series against the top-ranked Lamigo Monkeys.
The run came on a throwing error by Monkeys third baseman Lin Chih-ping, whose throw to first on a put-out attempt that would have ended the inning allowed the Lions’ Kao Guo-ching to reach second on the previous play to set up Huang’s game-winning swing.
“[The Lions] are the kind of team that will cash in on your mistakes, which was what happened tonight,” Monkeys skipper Hung Yi-chung said after the game.
Photo: Liao Yao-tung, Taipei Times
His team took a 4-1 lead through the third and seemed well on their way to winning the game after Lin “Chubby Kid” Hung-yu homered for the second straight game with a two-run blast to cap off a three-run first.
Trailing by three in the bottom of the fifth, the Lions did not go away quietly as they finally got to Monkeys starter Shoda Itsuki with a three-run inning on the merit of Chou Guang-sheng’s RBI single and Tang Chao-ting’s two-run double to tie the game at 4-all.
After squandering a three-run lead and falling behind by a run, the Primates had one last gasp to tie the game, with Kuo Yen-wen leading off the top of the ninth on a single off Lions closer Kuo Hung-chih and taking second on a sacrifice bunt to put himself in scoring position.
However, a picture-perfect throw by Lions rightfielder Liu Fu-hao on a single by Chen Yen-fong just beat out a charging Kuo Yen-wen from second at the plate for the game-ending out.
Picking up the win was Boof Bonser, who pitched a scoreless eighth to improve to 2-0 for the season, while his counterpart, Chen Yu-hsun, was tagged with the loss for serving up the go-ahead run by the Lions in the eighth.
RHINOS 2, ELEPHANTS 0
Andy Sisco cooled off the Chinatrust Brother Elephants by going the distance in a four-hit gem for the EDA Rhinos to take the series-finale at the Cheng Ching Lake Baseball Stadium in Greater Kaohsiung in a shutout last night.
The US lefty followed his Pitcher-of-the-Month selection for last month with another dominant outing on the mound to avenge an embarrassing 9-1 defeat to the Elephants the night before. His seven punch-outs also pushed his league-leading strikeout total to a staggering 74 as he improved to 5-2 for the year with two complete-game shutouts under his belt.
Offensively for the victorious Rhinos, the night belonged to leftfielder Hu Chin-lung, who went two-for-four with an RBI that gave his club a 1-0 lead in the top of the sixth, a lead they did not relinquish, with Sisco in top form.
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