Galaxy Gas 2059.35 – Stars Hold Off Tropics 6-5

[DugoutDesperado]

In a matchup of two teams on the outside looking in the Frick League wildcard chase, the Hawaii Tropics arrived in Valencia to play the second game of a four-game series. The Tropics came into the contest with a record of 64-75 while the Stars were one game better at 65-74.

In front of a paltry crowd of 27,679 fans, the Stars jumped onto the scoreboard with a run in the bottom of the first inning when Carlos Schumann hit a leadoff double into the left-centerfield gap and then promptly stole third base. Kenny Blackwell then brought him home with a sacrifice fly.

In the second inning, the Valencia bats started rattling sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring 5 runs. Habib bin Ameen, Kenny Blackwell, Miller Shed and Mark Kimball all had RBI singles during that outburst

The Tropic made the game a little more interesting in the fifth inning by scoring three runs of their own. The big blow in that inning was a two run homer by Mitch Wareham. In the seventh inning Hawaii inched closer with a solo shot by Quentin Trewatha making the score 6-4.

Hawaii then made the score 6-5 with yet another Tropic homer. This time the damage was done off of the bat of Luis Estrada as the ball cleared the right-field fence. After that hit, the Valencia arms stopped the bleeding to preserve the win.

Adam Hines (13-10) gained the win allowing four earned runs in 6 plus innings of work. Martin Roman recorded his 34th save of the season by pitching a perfect 9th inning. Jose Ordonez (0-6) took the loss while allowing 6 runs in 2 innings.