TAIWAN – The Brother Elephants dealt the Uni-President Lions their fourth straight loss, and the La New Bears knocked the Sinon Bulls from the unbeaten ranks Friday in Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) action.

The struggling Lions, which defeated the Elephants and their Japanese starter Kobayashi Ryokan in the season opening game last week, suffered a 7-3 loss at the Taipei County Baseball Stadium in Sinjhuang. The reigning CPBL champion four-game losing skid is their longest winning drought in almost two years.

Ryokan (1-1) limited the big bats of Uni-President to four hits and three runs in seven innings to secure his first win of the young season.

SINON BULLS 6, LA NEW BEARS 1

The Bears moved into a tie atop the league standings with a convincing win over the previously unbeaten Bulls at Hsinchu Municipal Baseball Stadium. Both teams have identical 3-1 records heading into the second week of the new season.

A pair of rookies, Lin Keh-chien and Lin Yi-chuen, continued to shine for a re-tooled Sinon squad that raced out to a 4-0 lead against Bears starter Hsu Wen-hsiung . An RBI single by Wilton Veras put the Bulls ahead 1-0 in the the third, and
Lin Yi-chuen added a two-run triple in the same inning to pad the lead.

The Bears finally managed to cross the plate in the seventh when Huang “Easy” Long-yi drove in Tsang Chih-yao with a hit to right field. However, the Bulls scored a pair of insurance runs an inning later to clinch their third victory.

Lin Yi-chuen, who has already tallied nine hits this season, paced the Bulls’ offense with a 3-for-4 effort and two RBIs.

Lin Keh-chien (1-0) scattered five hits over six scoreless innings in a dazzling professional debut to pick up the win.

Tags: Taiwan