Chou Si-chi homered on a three-RBI night and Chang Cheng-wei followed with a clutch hit that drove in a pair, as the Brother Elephants broke a scoreless tie wide open with a four-run sixth to beat the Uni-President Lions 6-1 at the Tainan Municipal Baseball Stadium last night to clinch the weekend series.
It was the eighth long ball that the veteran slugger has crushed this season, heating his bat up at the right time for the men in the golden uniforms as they trail the top-ranked Lamigo Monkeys in the standings by one game with a handful of games remaining in the regular season.
The pitchers had their way early in the game, with the Elephants’ Lin Yu-ching and the Lions’ Pan “Du Du” Wei-lung tossing five innings of shutout ball, despite each allowing opposing runners to reach scoring positions on more than two occasions.
Du Du’s luck finally ran out when the Elephants’ Chang doubled off him in the top of the sixth and scored the game’s first run on Peng “Chia Chia” Cheng-min’s single to set up Chou’s game-changing three-run blast.
Even though the Lions answered with a run of their own in the bottom of the inning, that was all the offense they could muster off Lin, who lasted through the seventh in a gutsy outing to win his 10th game of the year.
Taking the loss was Pan, who fell to 5-9 for the season with four allowed runs on eight hits over 5-1/3 innings.
RHINOS 9, MONKEYS 4
The EDA Rhinos also roughed up the Lamigo Monkeys with a resounding home triumph at the Kaohsiung Cheng Ching Lake Baseball Stadium last night to even their weekend series against the Primates at one win apiece.
Nick Green of the US had a big day for the first-half champs as he baffled the Monkeys’ hitters with 7-2/3 innings of two-run ball on seven hits to win his second of the year since joining the Rhinos late last month.
The Rhinos’ Lin Yi-chuan shook off a recent hitting slump with three RBIs on a two-for-three night to lead his team to victory.
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