Diaz Sets Franchise Record
July 22, 2009 - Golden Baseball League (GBL)
St. George RoadRunners News Release
LONG BEACH , CALIF - The St. George RoadRunners used three unanswered runs in the fifth and sixth innings to push past the host Long Beach Armada 3-2 on Tuesday night at Blair Field.
St. George starter Raymar Diaz (4-1) allowed two early runs, but bounced back to retire a franchise-high 16 consecutive batters from the third through seventh innings. Diaz scattered five hits and struck out five to pick up a third win in his last five starts.
Down 2-0 in the fifth inning, DH Cody Nowlin drew a leadoff walk and Angel Sanchez reached after a curveball from Hideki Irabu hit him in the back. Henry Calderon executed a good sacrifice bunt pushing Nowlin and Sanchez into scoring position. Eric Pringle plated Nowlin with a sacrifice RBI fly to right to cut the Fleet lead to 2-1.
In the following inning, Ruddy Yan singled on a tricky hop to short and advanced to second on an Irabu balk. After a fly ball out, Jose Rodriguez one-hopped the wall in left for a RBI double. Nowlin stepped in and delivered a run-scoring single to left to give St. George the lead at 3-2.
Long Beach threatened to tie the game in the seventh when Brandon Howard blasted a ground-rule double with one out. Eude Brito entered from the bullpen and got Josh Womack to fly out to shallow left. Julio Castro then got the call to face righty and GBL all-star Omar Bramasco. On three pitches, Castro notched the inning ending strikeout to keep Long Beach off the board.
Bartolome Fortunato pitched a perfect ninth including a strikeout to notch his 12th save of the campaign.
Both teams swatted five hits - LB's Howard was the only player with two hits.
Game two of the three-game set is Wednesday night featuring a battle of all-star pitchers. St. George will start RHP Eric Van Slyke (4-4, 5.14) while the Armada counter with RHP Jose Lima (4-5, 3.12). First pitch is scheduled for 8:05pm Mountain.
Catch all of the live action with John Potter, the voice of the RoadRunners, beginning at 7:45pm Mountain for the Infowest Pre-Game Show.
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