Taking two of three in their homestand against the Chinatrust Whales at Tainan last week, the President Lions moved up to third place in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League standings for the first time in nearly three months.
After dropping the series opener 11-3 on Thursday, the Lions won 7-6 victory on Saturday when second baseman Yang Seng drove a line drive to shallow-left off Whales reliever Dario Veras to break a 6-6 tie in the bottom of the ninth inning for the win.
The seesaw battle that featured four lead changes had the Whales striking first in the first inning when consecutive groundouts by Tseng Han-chou and Chen Jia-hong with runners on third gave the marine creatures a quick 2-0 lead.
The Lions quickly fought back, tallying three runs of their own in the bottom of the first on four singles against starter Kao Jien-san.
Down 3-2, the Whales regained the lead in the third with a pair of runs off Lions starter Pan "Du Du" Wei-luenm, only to see the lead disappear in the fourth when shortstop Yang Tung-yi's two-run double and Yang Seng's RBI single put the hosts up 6-4.
Back-to-back scoring drives by Chen Jia-hong and Kuo Dai-yong off Lions reliever Kao Long-wei in the seventh knotted the game at 6-6 to set the stage for Yang Seng's late-inning heroics.
Lions closer Mike Garcia pitched a perfect ninth for his fourth win of the season while Veras took the tough loss to fall to 5-5 for the year.
Lions 4, Whales 2
Lin Yueh-pin pitched eight strong innings of five-hit ball to help the Lions win the best-of-three series at home on Sunday in a 4-2 final.
Lions' rookie first-round draft pick quickly found himself down 2-0 after the first two innings following a sacrifice fly by Tseng Han-chou and a solo home run by catcher Shih Jin-sho.
But Lin allowed only three more hits over the next six innings before Garcia closed with a perfect ninth inning.
Yang Seng of the Lions was 2-for-3 with a pair of RBIs. The second-year man out of Tainan is 13-for-22 over the past two weeks.
Taking the loss for the Whales was reliever Kao Jien-san, who allowed two runs on three hits in 3-1/3 innings of relief, falling to 1-5 for the year.
Cobras 5, Bulls 5
First-half champs the Macoto Cobras forced another tie in their series against the Sinon Bulls with a 5-5 draw on Saturday to conclude the four-game week with a rare 0-1-2 (ties) mark.
Following a postponed game in Luodong on Friday because of Typhoon Matsa, the powerful Cobras lineup was held to just one run on six hits through the first eight innings thanks in large part to Bulls ace Lenin Picota, who combined with reliever Yu Wen-pin for eight innings of one-run ball.
The Bulls broke a 1-1 deadlock with a four-run seventh that included some help from the serpents' defense when a passed ball by catcher Wu Jau-huiby on a pitch by reliever Lin Ying-jeh, coupled with shortstop Chang Jia-hao's two-run, opposite-field single, made it 5-1 in favor of the Bulls.
The four-run cushion stood until the bottom of the ninth when the Cobras rallied with four straight runs against Bulls righty Osvaldo Martinez on the strength of catcher Chen Keh-fan's two-run single and pinch hitter Chiou Chang-rong's two-run double to force the tie.
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