The Diamonds beat the Cobras 8-4 Tuesday night in the St. Croix U-23 baseball league at D.C. Canegata Ball Park to finish tied with them atop the league at 9-1.
With a victory, the Cobras could have claimed the outright championship, but Sean Tutein and Eric Perez combined to pitch the Diamonds to victory.
Batting first, the Diamonds plated three runs in the inning on a two-run double by Michael Fleming and an RBI single by Steve Simmonds to take the early lead. The Cobras had no answer in their half of the inning.
The Diamonds would add an unearned run in the top of the second to stretch the lead to 4-0 on a Cobras error. Again the Cobras would fail to score as Tutein was in total control for the first two innings.
A two-run single by Jahmoy Williams in the top of the third and the Diamonds lead was now 6-0. The Cobras finally got their offense going in the bottom of the third, reaching Tutein for three runs on Jose Rivera’s two-run triple and Angel Torres’ RBI groundout to now trail 6-3 after three completed innings.
The Diamonds, however, was back on the offensive in the top of the fourth inning, plating two more runs for an 8-3 lead. Tutein then set the Cobras down in order in the bottom of the inning, striking out two and getting a third to fly out to right field.
The Cobras starting pitcher Joshua Torres was relieved by Rivera in the top of the fifth and all he did was blow away the Diamonds batters he faced with three strikeouts. With time running out on the game, the umpire alerted the Cobras that the bottom of the fifth would be the final inning.
The Diamonds also went to their bullpen for their fireballing closer, Eric Perez, who came in throwing gas. However, after striking out the first two batters, he allowed two base runners with one of them scoring on a sac fly off the bat of Angel Torres. Perez would then get the final out of the game on an easy groundout to second to preserve the 8-4 victory.
Tutein got the win on the hill for the Diamonds while Joshua Torres got the loss for the Cobras.
Top batters for the Diamonds were Fleming (2 for 2 with three RBIs) and Williams (1 for 2 with two RBIs). For the Cobras, Rivera was 2 for 3 with two RBIs, and Luis Frontal was 2 for 3.
