Full House Beats a Pair as Tucson Batters Houston, 13-4
In poker, they say that a Full House beats two pair, and that proved to be the case in baseball as well. At least in the Pecos league on Thursday night, as the Tucson Saguaros scored three runs in three different frames and added two runs in two separate innings while the Houston Apollos scored a pair of runs in a pair of innings in the 13-4 Tucson victory. Darian Fleming earned the victory, his second win of the season.
Tucson got rolling when they drew a three in the bottom of the first inning. With one down, Thomas DeBonville singled and James Prockish drove him home with a triple. Two batters later, Cody Earl tripled to drive home Prockish and he scored on a balk to give the Saguaros a 3-0 lead.
In the second, the Saguaros drew a deuce. Blaze Speas led off with a walk and scored on a double by Fleming. Fleming reached third on the throw to the plate and scored on a ground out to extend the lead to five.
Houston battled back in this contest, however. In the top of the third inning, Trey Silmon drew a two-out walk and scored when Mike Million followed with a two-run homer, his first home run of the season. Two innings later, the Apollos made this a one-run game when Aaron Stubblefield drove home a pair of runs to make it 5-4.
The Saguaros responded right away in the bottom of the fifth. A double by Christopher Eusay and a single by DeBonville put runners at the corners with no one out. Eusay came home on a balk and DeBonville scored when Nathan Etheridge doubled into the gap in left. He scored on a single by Earl to give Tucson a four-run lead.
In the bottom of the seventh, Tucson completed the pair. An RBI double by Danny Kerr and a sacrifice fly by Speas brought home two runs in the inning. An inning later, the Saguaros scored their final three runs of the game. Two came home on a double by Chris Caffrey and the final run scored on a sacrifice fly by Earl.
Both Earl and Caffrey drove home a pair of runs. Four different Tucson players scored two runs in the game, including Eusay, DeBonville, Prockish, and Etheridge. DeBonville and Etheridge are tied for the league lead in run scored with 10.
Fleming (2-0) earned the victory, allowing seven hits, four walks, and four runs in six innings of work. He struck out three. The victory gave Tucson (5-1) sole possession of first place in the Pecos League.
by Robert Pannier
