Taipei, Nov. 4 (CNA) Brother Elephants rallied in the bottom of the ninth inning to beat SK Wyverns 3-2 in the first game of a two-game friendly series between South Korean and Taiwanese professional baseball champions Thursday night.
Trailing 2-1 with three outs away from losing Game 1, held in the central city of Taichung, the home team made a successful last push in the final inning, placing runners on first and second bases before Wang Sheng-wei blasted a game-winning two-RBI (runs batted in) line drive double to the left off Korean closer Song Eunbeom.
Lee Ho-jun had a go-ahead solo home run in the top of the third inning off Elephants starter Orlando Roman to make the score 2-1 as both teams failed to score again until the game's final at-bat.
Roman gave up seven hits but struck out eight in seven innings while the visitors' four pitchers limited Elephants batters to six hits with reliever Jun Byungdoo striking out five in 5 2/3 shutout innings.
The Elephants, the Chinese Professional Baseball League champion, has secured NT$5 million of a total prize money of NT$10 million (US$328,370) by the victory. NT$8 million will go to the winners and the losers receive NT$2 million in the event of a 2: 0 series. The teams will share the pot in the case of a 1:1 tie. (By Chris Wang) enditem/jc