| 8/2/2006
FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — Pedro Alvarez (Vanderbilt) knocked in three runs and five pitchers combined on a two-hitter as the USA Baseball National Team defeated the Fayetteville SwampDogs, 5-1, Wednesday night at J.P. Riddle Stadium. The US pitching staff had a no-hitter through six innings before Sean Roof broke it up with a single off of Andrew Brackman (North Carolina State). It was Brackman’s first appearance for the National Team as he joined the team in the afternoon, replacing Cal State Fullerton’s Wes Roemer who left the team on Sunday due to an illness in the family. The US squad moved to 20-2-1 on the summer and completed its portion of the schedule in this country. The USA jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first courtesy of a two-run double by J.P. Arencibia (Tennessee). Fayetteville scored an unearned run in the bottom half to cut the lead to 2-1. Pedro Alvarez (Vanderbilt) extended his hitting streak to eight games with a solo homer to lead off the third to make it 3-1. It was his fifth homer of the summer and third in the last four games. He added a sacrifice fly RBI in the fourth to extend the lead to 4-1. The New York City resident completed his three RBI day with a run-scoring single in the ninth to make it 5-1. Tommy Hunter (Alabama) gave up one unearned run in three innings in his controlled start to improve to 3-0 on the summer. Nick Schmidt (Arkansas) pitched two innings of scoreless relief before Brackman came on in the sixth. He threw an inning of shutout ball, and was followed by Cole St. Clair (Rice) who threw two innings of one-hit relief. Daniel Moskos (Clemson) had a 1-2-3 ninth to close out the game. The National Team will head to Havana, Cuba, Thursday night to compete in the FISU World Collegiate Championships that starts on Aug. 6 with a 10 a.m. tilt with Chinese Taipei. USA 201 100 001 -5 8 3 FAYETTEVILLE 100 000 000 -1 2 1 Hunter, Schmidt (4), Brackman (6), St. Clair (7), Moskos (9) and Clark. Ibarra, Nehls (3), Moore (6), Lovett (8), Prihoda (9) and Valadez. W- Hunter 3-0, L- Ibarra 0-1. SV- None . HR- USA: Alvarez (5). |
