5 in a row!

The Spirit offense struggled again, but it did enough to get the job done for North Shore's 5th straight win tonight at Fraser Field. The team squeaked home two runs on six hits off of Jackals pitcher Raul Valdez, who tossed the rare complete game loss. Joey Siak went 8 innings yielding one unearned run to get the win. Kevin Fitzgerald nailed down another save in the 9th.

The Spirit got all of the offense in the 2nd. Chris Rowan led the inning off with a single, but the threat seemed to die with Ricardo Cordova grounding into a double play. Alex Trezza reignited the offense, however, smashing a line-drive double into right field. Jon de Vries followed with a scorched RBI single over the outstretched glove of shortstop Guillermo Reyes into left field. Andrew Wishy's single to right put runners on the corners for Ryan Bethel, who muscled an RBI double that plated de Vries. On the play, Andrew Wishy tried to score, but was gunned down at home plate, ending the inning.

Joey Siak did some good escape work to preserve the lead in the 6th. Jason Tuttle singled to start the inning. Chris Rowan's error on a Reyes ground ball put the first two men on for New Jersey. Joey Gomes then singled to load the bases with nobody out. After a brief conference with catcher Alex Trezza, Siak rolled the double play ball, getting powerful John Lindsay to hit into the 4-6-3 RBI double play that cut the lead to 2-1. He then got 2004 MVP Wilton Veras to fly to left to end the inning, making it a major squander for NJ.

He then retired 6 of the last 7 men he faced before giving way to Kevin Fitzgerald in the 9th. Fitz got John Lindsay, Wilton Veras and Alex Hernandez to fly out 1-2-3 to end the ballgame.

Tonight's player of the game>
Joey Siak: 8 IP 4 H 1 R 0 ER

Pcking up the Spirit hits tonight were Trezza, de Vries, Wishy, Bethel, Rowan and Cordova. Nobody had a two hit game.

NJ 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 --- 1 4 2 (5 LOB)
NS 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 --- 2 6 2 (4 LOB)