TAIWAN – The Uni-President 7-ELEVEN Lions captured their third consecutive Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) championship with a 5-2 win Sunday against the Brother Elephants in Game 7 of the Taiwan Series.

The Taiwan Series this year attracted a total of 96,214 baseball fans, the second highest in Taiwan’s pro baseball history and just slightly shy of record crowds of 96,825 in 2008.

The Elephants affiliated with Brother Hotel – fought back from a three games to one hole with a 5-4 win in 10 innings in Game 5, and scraped out a 3-3 tie in an epic 17-inning affair on Saturday in Game 6, to force a seventh game.

The Lions, sponsored by the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, opened the scoring in the second and built a 3-0 lead off Brother staff ace Tsao Chin-hui.  But, the Elephants rallied against former St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Luther Hackman (pictured) to close the gap to 3-2 before the two-time defending CPBL champion added a pair of insurance runs to seal the title-clinching victory.

The Brother Hotel franchise lost to the Lions for the second year in a row in the Taiwan Series, but field general Chung Ju-shen said both he and the team have learned more with growing confidence.

The Elephants will start a new training session immediately on Nov. 1 to gear up for the 2010 season after only a one-week break.

Photo courtesy of thediamondangle.com

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