Report By Marcelo Figueroa
It was Lima Time at Blair Field on Wednesday night as Jose Lima pitched eight terrific innings to lead the Fleet to a 5-1 win over the visiting St. George Roadrunners. Long Beach is now 3-6 in the second half and 23-24 overall.
In the bottom of the second, new comer Steve Moss started a one-out rally for the Fleet with a walk. Asif Shah followed with a base hit and Daryl Jones walked to load the bases for Matt Edgecombe. Edgecombe came through with a single to center to drive in Moss and Shah to give the Armada the 2-0 lead. Brandon Howard hit an infield single to load the bases for Jonny Kaplan, still with just one out. Jonny Kaplan flied into shallow right but it was deep enough to being in the speedy Jones from third. At the end of two innings the score was LB 3, STG 0.
Long Beach added to its lead in their half of the third. Back-to-back singles from Napoleon Calzado and Andy Bouchie put runners on the corners with nobody out. Moss drew his second walk of the night to load the bases for Shah. Shah hit a sacrifice fly for his first RBI as a member of the Fleet to push the lead to 4-0 Long Beach at the end of three innings.
The Armada would score for the third consecutive inning in the bottom of the fourth. Howard led off the inning with a shot to center before stealing second. His aggressiveness forced an errant throw from Van Slyke that allowed him to move over to third with just one out. Bramasco hit a shot to second base allowing Howard to cross the plat giving the Fleet the 5-0 lead.
Lima looked terrific through seven innings of work. He recorded five strikeouts with no walks on just four hits.
St. George tried to fight back in the top of the eighth. With two outs, back-to-back-to-back singles pushed across the only run of the night for the Roadrunners. Lima’s line at the end of the night would be 8 IP, 7 H, R, and 6 Ks with no walks.
Ryne Tacker came in to shut the door on St. George and successfully retired the Roadrunners to break the Armada’s two game skid.
Ben Fox will take the hill for the Fleet in the rubber match Thursday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm.