Armada CF Steve Moss blasted the first pitch he saw over the centerfield wall for a solo HR and a 1-0 Long Beach lead. Moss finished the evening 2 for 5 with 2 RBI and one spectacular leaping catch to end the 5th inning.
The Flyers evened things up at 1-1 in the bottom of the first when OC's Pat Breen singled to drive in Mark Okano. One batter later, Flyers SS Dave Bacani got caught up on the base path between third and home after Gober tried to catch Breen stealing second. As Bacani sprinted toward the plate, Armada 2B Cleatus Davidson fired the ball to C Octavio Martinez. Bacani smashed into Octavio who fell over but held onto the ball for the out. After that play, the Flyers failed to threaten again until the sixth inning.
Gober retired 13 straight Flyers from the end of the first inning through that final out of the fifth, wracking up six strikeouts in that time. He finished the night with 6 innings pitched, giving up 2 runs (both earned) and 4 hits while striking out six, walking one and hitting one batter in 79 pitches.
The Armada scored two more in the fifth inning to get the offense going. Davidson reached on a single to right field, and two batters later Moss drove him in. Trumble also scored in the frame for the 3-1 Armada advantage.
In the sixth, 1B Tony Torcato singled to bring in DH Norm Hutchins for what would prove to be the night's winning run.
Sean Buller pitched the seventh and eighth innings in relief of Gober, giving up only one hit to the nine batters he faced. Closer Nick Cavanaugh pitched a scoreless bottom of the ninth to record his sixth save of 2008.
The Fleet added two insurance runs in the top of the ninth when Bacani committed his second and third errors of the game. Davidson walked to lead off the inning, and two batters later LF Dan Trumble reached on Bacani's first error. RF Chris Klemm hit a hard grounder to Bacani, who overthrew the first baseman, allowing both Davidson and Trumble to secure the Armada win.
2 comments:
With the Flyers having all these double headers in front of them I personally feel its going to start affecting them, negatively. Visiting teams can "get up" for an extra game, and while traveling also wears down the visiting team, for them it will be 'once and gone'.
The home Flyers team will have more of these long days. Position players will especially feel it after a while. Starting pitchers won't notice much - closers will have a lot more action - not sure mid-relief specialists will benefit or get hurt (they'll need to shift more to a closer mode I suppose). The closers in the OC pen take on much importance.
LB will only have two more double headers in Fullerton, so for the Armada it won't have much of an impact, but because OC meets so many other teams in the same way, it just may wear down on the Flyers' top standing and bring them down a bit. IMHO.
Mark
Very good point from mark6. As a former ballplayer and middle infielder, I can tell you that playing 2 in one day takes a toll on you both physically and mentaly. When you have a below avg game on either side of the field in the first game. You tend to take it into the 2nd game. Any ballplayer who tells you otherwise is full of themselves and full of s***. Let's see how it will effect the OC (Criers) I mean Flyers at the end.
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