Report by the Armada’s Marcelo Figueroa

Ben Fox had another solid outing to pick up his fifth win of the year and lead the Fleet to a 3-2 win Friday night at Blair Field. Long Beach is now 10-13 in the second half and 30-31 overall.

Long Beach jumped out to the early lead in the bottom of the second. Matt Edgecombe led off the inning tapping the ball softly in front of the plate but reached third base on a three base throwing error from catcher Jose Mosquera. Andy Bouchie cashed him in immediately, grounding out to second base to give the Fleet the 1-0 lead.

But Yuma would respond just a half inning later in the top of the third. Back-to-back singles from Mosquera and Jonathan Lozada put runners on with nobody out. A sac bunt from Deivis Rivadeneira moved the runners to second and third with one out. Adolfo Gomez promptly doubled to right center to bring in both runners, giving the Scorpions the 2-1 lead at the end of three innings.

Fox pitched terrifically after surrendering those two runs in the third. Through six innings of work, he allowed just two runs on five hits while striking out six. His solid performance kept the Armada in the ball game.

Long Beach used timely hitting in their half of the sixth to reclaim the lead. Omar Bramasco and Steve Moss led the off the inning with back-to-back walks. Napoleon Calzado then sacrificed to advance both runners. With one out, it was Edgecombe who came through with the clutch base hit, driving a ball into shallow left field to bring in Bramasco from third to tie the ball game at 2-2. Then with two outs and the bases loaded, Daryl Jones stepped in to face reliever Dorian Castro. Castro’s first pitch to Jones was a wild pitch that got away from Mosquera, allowing Moss to cross the plate to take the 3-2 lead for what would prove to be the winning run.

Fox would record two outs in the seventh before Justin Segal came in to close out the inning. He pitched the eighth and set it up for Koichi Misawa to close out the ninth, recording his sixth save of the season.

Kris Honel will take the hill for the Fleet tomorrow night in the second game of this three game series. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm.