Christopher Lee Mason tossed nine innings of one-run ball and Lin Hong-yu drove in three runs in a three-for-four effort as the La New Bears defended their own turf with a convincing 9-1 win over the Brother Elephants at Chengcing Lake Baseball Field in Kaohsiung County yesterday afternoon.
It was the fourth straight win for the right-hander from the US, who pitched a complete game, improving to 4-1 for the season, while Lin raised his batting average to a league-best .349 by busting out for three hits and as many RBIs.
The win not only avoided what would have been an embarrassing three-game sweep by the last-place Elephants for the rambunctious Bears, who dropped both games in the day-night doubleheader on Saturday, but also nipped a three-game slide for them in the process.
PHOTO: WANG MIN-WEI, TAIPEI TIMES
The home team snapped a 1-1 tie in the bottom of the fourth inning when Chen Yen-fong came through with a big two-out double off Elephants starter Jim Magrane that gave the Bears a 3-1 lead.
They would increase their advantage an inning later with four more runs that chased Magrane from the game, before sealing the deal with a pair of runs in the seventh to conclude all the scoring.
Other than the lone run that they managed against Mason in the top of the second, courtesy of Chang Chih-hao’s RBI-groundout that scored Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min from second, the game was all Bears as Mason scattered only five hits over nine sharp innings of work.
Both teams will have today off before the Bears pay a visit to the Uni-President Lions in Tainan tomorrow evening in a battle between the two powerhouses down south, while the Elephants will play host in Hsinchu to the Sinon Bulls on Wednesday night.
BULLS 12, LIONS 5
The Sinon Bulls also avoided being swept by the Uni-President Lions in their three-game series over the weekend with a 12-5 trouncing of the Cats at Taoyuan International Baseball Stadium yesterday afternoon.
Sinon set a new club record for most runs in a single inning with eight during the second, pounding out five hits on top of four walks and an error against two Lions pitchers.
That was more than enough for starter Lin Chi-wei, who cruised through five innings unharmed, before surrendering an unearned run in the sixth for his league-leading fourth win of the season.
Trailing 12-1 heading into the bottom of the ninth, the Lions mustered four meaningless runs off Sinon reliever Lindsay Gulin to make the final score more respectable, but it was too little, too late for the defending champions as they lost by seven runs to drop to 11-14.
Lions starter Chen Yi-huan was charged with the loss for allowing six runs on five hits and two walks. He was pulled after failing to record an out against eight straight Sinon hitters in the second in a rather forgettable outing.
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