Report by the Armada’s Josh Feldman
Long Beach battled back from an early six-run hole, but the RoadRunners pulled away with runs in the seventh and eighth en route to a 10-7 win over the Armada at Bruce Hurst Field on Friday night in St. George. The Armada is now 33-34 on the season.
St. George’s Ryan Stevenson knocked a run-scoring double in the seventh, and in the eighth Jose Rodriguez scored on a Cody Nowlin double to give the RoadRunners a three-run cushion for the win.
RoadRunners relievers Mike Martin and Julio Castro combined for three scoreless innings of relief, and Castro struck out the side in the top of the ninth to end the game. The Armada is now 0-29 when trailing after eight innings this season.
Long Beach is now 13-16 in the second half and will be 5.5 games out of fist place if the first-place Tucson Toros hold on the beat the Orange County Flyers (Tucson leading 5-0 in the 6th inning at press time).
Beal pitched 6 2/3 innings of relief in the longest relief outing by a member of the Armada this season after starter Scott Lonergan was chased from the game with no outs in the second inning. Lonergan (5-6) gave up seven runs off six hits with three walks.
Beal gave up a run in the second inning before settling down to pitch four scoreless innings of relief, retiring 12 of 14 batters from the third through sixth innings. He struck out the side in the third inning and went 1-2-3 in the fourth inning, throwing only six pitches in the frame. He finished the night giving up three runs, nine hits while walking two and striking out five in nearly seven innings of relief.
The Armada rallied from a six-run deficit in the top of the third to pull within a run. Matt Edgecombe doubled to drive in Omar Bramasco and J.J. Sherrill. After St. George starting pitcher Eric Van Slyke walked Jonny Kaplan and hit David Ramirez to load the bases, Josh Womack tripled off the centerfield wall, driving in three runs to cut the RoadRunners lead to 8-7.
The RoadRunners knocked Lonergan for five runs in the first inning, including a leadoff homerun by Gary Harris to tie the game, 1-1. The first five St. George batters all came around to score in the five-run first inning.
The RoadRunners sent all nine batters to the plate in the first and second innings.
Long Beach sends starter Dusty Gober to the mound on short rest against the RoadRunners on Saturday. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm Mountain Time, and the game can be heard live through longbeacharmada.com.