Mon, Mar 24, 2008 page19

• CPBL: Lions come back against Bears in bottom of ninth

  • By Paul Huang / CONTRIBUTING REPORTER
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  Yang Seng's walk-off triple that cleared the bases scored the game-winner in the bottom of the ninth as the President Lions dialed up five unanswered runs over the final two innings to top the La New Bears 5-4 in Tainan on Saturday afternoon.

  With the bases loaded and his team trailing 2-4, the soft-spoken Lions second baseman slapped a two-out liner to shallow-right which the Bears rightfielder missed on a diving attempt to score all three runners in a dramatic comeback win.

  The game was all-Bears early on with the visitors scoring three runs over the first four innings on RBI-singles from Gary Burnham and Lin Chih-sheng and a solo homer by Chen Fong-min in the top of the fourth, while starter Hsu Wen-hsiung dominated from the mound by tossing one-hit ball through the sixth.

  La New would tack on another run in the seventh on Lin's leadoff solo homer to make it 4-0 in what appeared to a certain Bears win.

  That was when things took a nasty turn south for the Bears as the Lions came up with back-to-back doubles off Hsu to break up the shutout bid and eventually won it on Yang's ninth-inning heroics in the end.

  "Anything can happen on a baseball field; it's not over until the final out is recorded," Yang said during the game-MVP award presentation after the impressive win.

  Picking up the surprising win from a reliever's role was Lions lefty Yen Chuen-hao who recorded only one out in the top of the ninth for his second "W" of the season from a reliever's role.

  Suffering the tough loss in a game the Bears should have won was closer Tsai Ying-fong who walked the first batter he faced in relief of fellow pitcher Lee Fong-hua to load up the bases in the ninth, got the second out of the game on the fly ball to left, before giving up the game-winner to Yang.

  T-Rex 1, Bulls 4

  The Sinon Bulls made it two in a row against the dmedia T-Rex to sweep the two-game series with a 4-1 triumph at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tienmu on Saturday.

  Chen Chih-wei's two-run single capped a four-run sixth that broke a scoreless tie and that was more than ample for the Sinon pitching as it held the T-Rex to a lone run in the seventh to make good on the win.

  Dmedia starter Chen Jien-fu cruised through the fifth with ease by taking a no-hitter into the sixth before stumbling into a line of fire against a Sinon lineup headed by veteran catcher Yeh Jung-chang and speedy outfielder Chang Jien-ming.

  It was Yeh's bouncer through short that broke up Chen Jien-fu's no-hitter and Chang's clutch single up the middle that brought in Yeh for the game's first run. Chen would end up with the loss for allowing four runs on as many hits over five-and-one-third innings despite having a brilliant start.

  Earning his first win of the season for the Bulls was Japanese righty Katayama Fumio who came out of the bullpen in relief of fellow countryman Iba Tomokazu with one-and-one-third inning of no-hit ball.

  As for the T-Rex, who actually outhit the Bulls 7-6 in the game, Huang Shih-hao's solo blast off Sinon reliever Tsai Ming-jin was the lone run-scoring strike on a night they batted a futile 0-for-6 with man in scoring position.
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