Kuo Ming-ren’s two-run blast capped a three-run seventh as the dmedia T-Rex defense held off a tough rally by the La New Bears to run away with a 5-4 win at the Hsinchu Municipal Baseball Stadium on Friday night.
The fourth-year shortstop from Taitung County connected with a knee-high fastball from Bears reliever Hsu Chih-hua and drove it over the rightfield wall to give his club a 5-2 advantage.
The three-run lead was what eventually saved the T-Rex, because the Bears rallied for two ninth-inning runs on a pair of solo homers by Huang “Easy” Long-yi and Gary Burnham and actually had the tying on first with two outs before having the runner gunned down at the plate on a busted play for the final out to end the game.
PHOTO: LO PEI-DER, TAIPEI TIMES
The showdown between brothers Hsu Yu-wei of the Bears and Chang Hsien-chih, who have different surnames, was a classic pitchers’ duel. Chang took a 2-0 lead into the top of the sixth before the Bears tied it up at 2-2 on three straight base hits in the top of the sixth.
Dmedia skidded ahead on an RBI-groundout by Chen Chih-pong before Kuo’s two-run shot made it 5-2 to set the stage for the late-game drama in the ninth.
Picking up his first win of the year in only his second game appearance was Hsu Chu-jien with a scoreless seventh to beat Hsu Yu-wei, who allowed four runs on six hits over 6-1/3 innings in his fourth defeat of the season.
LIONS 6, ELEPHANTS 3
The Uni-President Lions continued their winning ways by topping the Brother Elephants 6-3 at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang on Friday for their third straight win of the week.
Pan “Du Du” Wei-luen improved to 10-1 for the year with seven solid innings of play, allowing three runs on eight hits, including a solo homer to the Elephants’ Chen “Golden Warrior” Chih-yuan in the bottom of the third to tie a league mark for consecutive seasons with double-digit wins at six.
The game was actually a lot closer than the final score would indicate, as the Elephants managed to load the bases in the bottom of the eighth and place runners at the corners with the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the ninth.
But failure to come up with the clutch hits necessary and a deadly base-running error by outfielder Chen Huai-shan, who left the bag too early on a sacrifice-fly attempt in the eighth, ultimately cost them the game.
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