Tonight it's Lehr's turn to smash 3 HRs...

By Patrick Haas--Calgary Vipers

The Calgary Vipers gave up five home runs in a 10-7 loss to the Long Beach Armada at Foothills Stadium in Calgary, Alberta. The Snakes led the game 7-5 after seven innings but two solo home runs in the eighth inning tied the game and one more big fly in the ninth gave the Armada the victory. The loss was Calgary's fourth in a row and in the four contests they have given up 44 runs. Now at 19-11 the Vipers have surrendered nine home runs against in the first two games of this series. Calgary did manage to out hit the Armada 14-9 but left 11 runners on base.

Jorge Mejia led off the bottom of the first inning with a walk and after stealing second base he scored on a Drew Miller RBI double. Miller came around to score to make it 2-0 for Calgary on a Darryl Brinkley RBI triple.

Long Beach responded in the top of the next half inning with a leadoff home run from Norm Hutchins. Octavio Martinez followed by walking, David Ramirez doubled, and Stephen Yoo picked up a run batted in with a groundout. Following a walk to Petie Montero and his steal of second base Dan Trumble hit a double for two more runs and the 4-2 lead.

A run was added by the Armada in the top of the third inning with a leadoff long ball off the bat of Ryan Lehr for the 5-2 advantage.

After Vipers starter Joe Sergent was able to shutdown the Long Beach offence the Snakes were able to give him some run support in the bottom of the fifth inning. Mejia led off with a bunt single, Drader knocked in a run with a double, and Felix Jose scored Drader with a RBI single. Following a Brinkley base hit, Colin Moro cashed two runs with a double to give the Vipers back the lead. Jose Morban increased the lead to 7-5 with a double to score Moro.

Back-to-back solo home runs in the top of the eighth inning by Lehr and Hutchins tied the game at seven. It was both players second home runs of the game.

Long Beach took their second lead of the game in the top of the ninth when with two outs Trumble doubled and Andy Wilson delivered him to the plate with a base hit. Lehr hit his third home run of the night to add insurance with the 10-7 advantage.

Calgary loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the ninth but was unable to score any runs.

Sean Buller (2-0) recorded the victory with a scoreless inning of work while P.J. Bevis (1-1) received the loss after giving up three runs in the ninth. For the second straight night Nick Cavanaugh (5) secured the game with the save. Sergent went 6.2 innings for the Snakes striking out six and at one point retiring 13 batters in a row.

Mejia and Miller both reached base for the 30th game consecutively to start the season while Miller extended his hitting streak to 19 games. Brinkley extended his hitting streak to 15 contests.

This three game set concludes Sunday, June 29th at 1:35 PM (MDT) with Evan Greusel (5-0) taking the ball for the Vipers against Rik Currier (2-3).

Photos by: Mark Mauno


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