July 6, 2007

Armada put on a display of power
Wild win over O.C. seventh straight for Long Beach.
By Ben Villa, Staff writer

FULLERTON - On Thursday night, the Orange County Flyers' fireworks show was in jeopardy of being cancelled because of a 10 p.m. curfew, but thankfully for Long Beach Armada manager Darrell Evans, his team brought plenty of their own.

Dan Trumble went 3 for 4 with four RBI and a home run and Jeff LaRue also went deep as the Armada extended their winning streak to seven games after they defeated the Flyers 12-9 in a wild Golden Baseball League game in front of 1,136 at Cal State Fullerton.

"A lot of guys are swinging the bats really well right now," Evans said. "This is a good streak we're on and everybody is having good at-bats. It seems like every night we're getting big hits and once that happens, things start to become contagious. It's almost like you start to feel invincible."

The game was tied 9-9 in the top of the eighth inning when LaRue doubled off Flyers reliever Brian Fulcher. Chris Wakeland was up next and he walked and that brought Ben Fox out of the bullpen to face Trumble.

The move, however, backfired on the Flyers when Trumble singled to left field. LaRue rounded third base and tried to score and on the throw to the plate, Flyers third baseman Hector Zamora cut the ball off and threw wildly past catcher

Buddy Morales, allowing LaRue to score the Armada's 10th run of the game.

Fox was backing up on the play and he tried to throw out Wakeland, who was trying to advance to third base, but his throw promptly sailed into left field and both Wakeland and Trumble scored easily on the play for a 12-9 Armada lead.

The Flyers, who have now lost eight in a row, threatened in their half of the eighth but Armada closer Dane De La Rosa came in and got Mark Okano to ground out to second base with two runners on to end the threat.

In the ninth inning, De La Rosa retired the side in order to pick up his seventh save of the season.

In the beginning, it looked like the Armada were going to win in a laugher when they took a 5-0 lead into the bottom of the third inning. But Gary Templeton II had an RBI triple and Dave Bacani added a sacrifice fly to cut the Armada's advantage to 5-2.

However, the Armada regained the momentum in the top of the fourth inning when Trumble hit a two-run home run, his third in as many days, to extend the lead to 7-2.

The Flyers though would eventually come all the way back and even take an 8-7 lead when Mark Okano hit a grand slam off Armada starter Ryan Claypool in the bottom of the fifth inning.

In the top of the sixth, the Armada retook the lead once again when Trumble doubled home a run and David Ramirez had a RBI single, but the Flyers tied the game at 9-9 on a sacrifice fly by Bret Levier in the bottom half of the sixth.

"We had a hard time putting these guys away," Evans said. "The Flyers are a good team and they never quit. That's baseball. Right now, all the breaks are going are way. It started in St. George. We had a big come back there and since then, the guys really started to believe."