Liu Fu-hao’s two-out single with runners on second and third scoring capped a three-run seventh that blew an otherwise close 3-2 game wide open as the Uni-President Lions erased a 0-1 deficit in the fourth with a strong effort to top the Lamigo Monkeys 6-2 at the Cheng Ching Lake Baseball Stadium in Greater Kaohsiung last night.
The victory not only handed the Cats a clean sweep in the three-game weeekend series, but also lifted them off the bottom of the standings as they traded places with the misfiring Primates.
Leading the way for the Cats was starter Wang Ching-ming, who held the defending champions to two runs on four hits over seven decent frames to give his slow-warming offense enough time to prevail in the end.
Also doing damage at the plate was leadoff man Tang Jau-ting, who batted a perfect four-for-four with one RBI to account for half of the Lions’ total run production.
Three singles by the Monkey offense helped them jumped to a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth.
The advantage was short-lived though as the Lions answered with a run of their own an inning later, when Chen Yung-chi led off the bottom of the fifth with a double off Monkeys starter Wang Yi-cheng and scored on Kao Guo-ching’s sacrifice fly, before tacking on two more runs in the sixth.
Trailing by two, the Primates managed to plate another run in the top of the seventh on a solo blast by Chung Cheng-yo that made it 3-2, only to see the Lions erupt for three unanswered runs in the bottom of the seventh to seal the deal.
Wang Ching-ming was credited with his seventh victory of the season.
The loss was charged against his counterpart Wang Yi-cheng, who cruised through the fourth with relative ease, before running into trouble mid-innings to lose his second game of the year.
ELEPHANTS 10, RHINOS 2
The Brother Elephants beat the EDA Rhinos at the Sinjhuang Baseball Stadium in New Taipei City last night to net the men in yellow the weekend series by a 2-1 margin.
Just a day after the shock death of manager Hsu Sheng-ming following a heart attack, the mourning Rhinos simply could not keep their mind on the game as they fell behind 3-0 through the top of the second and never recovered.
Picking up the victory was for the Elephants was starter Lin Yu-ching.
He pitched one-run ball on four hits over six innings of work to top Rhinos righty Andy Sisco, who served up a two-run homer to the Elephants’ Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min with four allowed runs over three innings.
It was Sisco’s sixth loss of the year.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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