The 2 remaining unbeaten teams in tier 2 face each other on this night. The Diamondbacks were looking for payback after the Storm beat them in the tier 2 championship last year in a hard fought battle, and they got it as the the Storm had their hands full on this night. The Storm jumped out to a quick lead in the first inning with a triple by Sliwka, and an RBI single by Paul Reid off of D-Backs starter Brian Merkel. Storm starter Mike DiSalvo then walked the bases loaded with 2 out in the bottom of the inning, and almost got out of it, until Jason Morato hit a DiSalvo pitch over the right center field fence for a grand slam and 4-1 D-Back lead. Merkel struck out the side in the second, while DiSalvo also cruised through the bottom of the second.
The turning point of the game came in the top of the third, after hits by Brannan and Parkins to lead off the inning, Reid came up with runners on 1st and 3rd with one out. Reid crushed a pitch right back at Merkel, who caught it in self defence, and then threw to first sitting on his butt to double up the runner and get out of the jam. The Diamondbacks promptly put 3 runs on the board in the bottom of the inning with Morato getting his 5th RBI, and Marshall adding another RBI, making the score 7-1.
After the Storm scored once in the top of the 4th, DiSalvo's wildness cost him in the bottom of the inning as he walked 3 and committed an error to give the D-Backs 2 more runs. From then on the result was obvious as Merkel cruised to the end and the Storm gave up 3 more unearned runs to finish the scoring at 12-2.
Player of the Game : Jason Morato...batting: 2/4, grand slam,
5 RBI.
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