Armada beats St. George in slugfest

ARMADA BOUNCES BACK TWICE TO GET THE WIN

LONG BEACH (August 18, 2009) -- The Long Beach Armada overcame a three-run deficit twice against the offensively explosive St. George RoadRunners en route to a 13-11 victory at Blair Field on Tuesday.  The win puts the Armada, now 12-14 in the second half, 3.5 games behind first-place Tucson in the GBL South Division standings with 12 games left in the regular season.  

St. George used two big innings - a six-run second and a five-run sixth - to take three-run leads over the Fleet, but each time the Armada offense responded in kind. 

The RoadRunners batted around in the sixth inning to turn an 8-6 Armada lead into a 11-8 hole.  The Armada responded in the home half of the inning with an RBI-single from Dan Luyben and a two-RBI single from Brandon Howard to tie the game, 11-11.  Howard finished the night 2-for-5 with one run scored and two RBI on a night where he got the start at third base after Napoleon Calzado was inactivated for the remainder of the season.

Omar Bramasco doubled in the bottom of the seventh to score Jonny Kaplan from first base as Long Beach took a 12-11 lead.  One inning later, Andy Bouchie hit his team-leading seventh homerun of the season over the centerfield wall to push the Armada ahead for good, 13-11.

Long Beach relievers Scott Watson, Justin Segal and Rusty Jones combined to shut out the RoadRunners over the final four innings to preserve the victory.  Watson (1-0) earned the win, giving up three hit over two innings of relief.  Jones earned his third save of the season.

Long Beach struck with three runs in the first inning to take the early lead, highlighted by back-to-back RBI doubles from Steve Moss and Matt Edgecombe.  

St. George retaliated with a monster second inning.  The RoadRunners roughed up Armada starter Dusty Gober for two runs off of three hits and two Armada errors before the GBL's RBI-leader AJ Valentine blasted a grand slam homerun for a 6-3 St. George lead.

All nine Armada batters collected a hit, and six notched multi-hit games.  Eight different Armada batters drove in at least one run, with Josh Womack leading the charge with a 3-RBI night.

If the Armada wins the second half division title, the team will advance to the playoffs for a GBL-record fourth time.