The Long Beach Armada moved closer to the top of the Golden Baseball League standings Thursday. Jaime Martinez had two hits and an RBI and Chris Wakeland drove in two as the visiting Armada defeated first-place Chico, 6-3. Long Beach (21-12) pulled to within one game of the Outlaws (22-11) with three games remaining in the series and five games left in the first half of the season.
The GBL postseason pits the winner of the first half against the winner of the second. John Bosco High graduate Bud Smith earned the victory and improved his record to 1-1. He retired the first six batters he faced and kept Chico scoreless until the fourth, when the Outlaws scored twice to take a brief 2-1 lead.
Long Beach answered with two runs in the top of the fifth and never trailed again. John Kaplan (two hits) scored on a throwing error and Martinez brought in Klemm with a single. Wakeland added an RBI double in the seventh and the Armada scored a pair of insurance runs in the ninth off reliever John Jefferson.
Chico opened the bottom of the ninth with a pair of singles and brought the potential tying run to the plate, but closer Dane De La Rosa retired the final three batters to earn his ninth save in his 20th appearance of the season. The Long Beach Armada moved closer to the top of the Golden Baseball League standings Thursday.
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