The Brother Elephants bounced back nicely from a three-game slide by topping the La New Bears 5-3 in the day game of a doubleheader at Chengcing Lake Baseball Field in Kaohsiung County yesterday afternoon.
Starter Orlando Roman struck out nine in his fifth straight quality start, with three allowed runs (only two earned) on five hits over six-and-a-third innings of work to lift the men in the golden uniforms to a much-needed victory.
The American right-hander overcame a shaky first inning, in which he gave up a two-run homer to the Bears’ Lin Chih-sheng, by holding the potent Bears hitters scoreless through the sixth before being pulled in the seventh inning after giving up an unearned run.
PHOTO: CHIEN JUNG-FONG, TAIPEI TIMES
That was all the runs the Bears could muster though, as the Elephants’ bullpen took over by retiring the final eight batters in order to preserve the win for Roman.
Offensively for the Elephants, Chang Chih-hao led off the top of the fifth inning with a high chopper through the middle for just their second hit of the game against La New starter Aaron Rakers and he scored two outs later on Yu Jhao-ren’s RBI single for his club’s first run of the contest.
They would tack on two more runs in the sixth inning on the strength of Chen Guan-ren’s run-scoring double and Chou Szu-chi’s one-run single to take a 3-2 lead, before making it 4-2 in the seventh.
After the Bears drew a run-scoring walk off Roman to pull to within a run in the bottom of the seventh, the Elephants managed to put up an insurance run the ninth to seal the victory.
Earning his second win of the year was Roman, while Rakers was tagged with the loss for allowing four runs on six hits over seven decent innings.
The Elephants also triumphed 4-3 in the evening game.
LIONS 3, BULLS 0
Pan “Du Du” Wei-lun pitched eight innings of shutout ball and Chuang Ching-he homered as the Uni-President Lions went on to blank the Sinon Bulls 3-0 at the Taipei Municipal Baseball Stadium in Tianmu last night.
It was only the second win that the Lions staff ace has picked up after losing four of his previous five starts in a rather disappointing first month, but “Du Du” was able to regain his dominant form by scattering five singles against the top-ranked Bulls to get the job done.
Newcomer Marshall McDougall of the US also had a big day at the plate, going a perfect two-for-two with a run scored to help his team win their third in a row. He has hit in nine straight and 20 of the 23 games played this year, boosting his batting average to a solid .333.
“Hitting is contagious and we are definitely on a roll right now,” McDougall said after the game.
Taking the tough loss was Sinon ace Shoda Itsuki, who went the distance with three allowed runs on seven hits, but was simply outdone by “Du Du.”
Tomorrow’s games see the Elephants take on the Bears in Kaohsiung County, while the Bulls and Lions travel to Taoyuan. Both games start at 2:05pm.
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