The Armada threatened late, but it was not enough as the Flyers, who scored six runs in the first two innings, to go on to a 6-3 victory over rival Long Beach. Long Beach now finishes the first half at .500 22-22 overall. Orange County's record extends to 28-15.
Armada starter Dusty Gober (3-4) didn't have a bad start even though he got the loss. All his runs were given up in the first and second, but after he shut down the Flyers for 6 innings giving up 6 runs on 11 hits, walking 3 and striking out 5. Garrett Murdy and Sean Buller combined to go 3 innings giving up 2 hits, walking 3 and striking out 1.
The Armada bats came to life in the eighth scoring two, but stranded two runners in the inning. 1B Norm Hutchins drove in a run and DH Brett Flowers walked in another to cut the Flyer lead to three. 2B Julian Williams drove in a run in the fourth. CF Steve Moss, Hutchins, 3B Ryan Lehr and C David Ramirez all went 2 for 4 for the Fleet. They left eight runners on base.
The Flyers got a great start out of starter Charles Merricks (5-1) who won his fifth game. He went 7 innings giving up 1 run on 7 hits, walking 2 and striking out 6. CF Patrick Breen drove in four of the six runs thanks to his two RBI double in the first and two run HR in the second. He finished 2 for 5 with four RBI and two runs scored. SS David Bacani was 3 for 3 with two runs scored. 2B Jermy Acey and 1B Fernando Pacheco would each drive in a run for Orange County. Dane De La Rosa got his fifth save pitching the ninth striking out two.
Probable starters tomorrow for Orange County Jesse Smith (2-0) and for Long Beach Jonathan Figueroa (2-0). Game time is at 7:05pm.
Photo by: Mark Mauno
2 comments:
TSWell, it looks like the O.C Cryers...ooops I mean Flyers got out in front again and never looked back. Two bad innings for Grober is all it took. He did not look bad overall, but he left pitches up over the plate and he got pounded. You can't pitch anywhere close to the plate against Pat Breen or he will make you pay. That's exactly what happened last night. Good to see N Hutchings and S Moss come out of their slumps from last week. Lets hope they can keep up the hitting.
The only negative thing I still see out on the diamond is that R Lear can not play a ball to his right side. That and he needs to get rid of the ball alot quicker once he fields it. He made one error last night only because he took to long to get rid of the ball and when he did he launched a goober. G Murdy did not look too sharp either. Great job (again) by S Buller out of the bullpen. 16 appearances, 23.2/3 innings pitched with 2-1 record and a miniscule 1.52 era. All Star numbers? I say Yes!!!
See you at the ballpark.
The 1-2-3 double play when they got out of Murdy's jam was sweet. Great play of the night for LB!
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