Diamond Jaxx Beat Birmingham 6-2
Date Posted: 6/12/2004

Saturday night the West Tenn Diamond Jaxx won the opening game of a very important four game series with the Birmingham Barons, defeating the Barons 6-2 in front of 3876 fans at Pringles Park. The win, coupled with Mobile's victory over Chattanooga, keeps the Diamond Jaxx tied for first place with the BayBears in the Western Division heading into the final seven games of the first half.

After spotting the Barons a 1-0 lead, the Diamond Jaxx tied the game at one on a sacrifice fly by Ronny Cedeno. In the bottom of the third inning, the Diamond Jaxx sent eleven men to the plate against Birmingham starter Eduardo Villacis (1-1) as the Diamond Jaxx scored five runs to make it a 6-1 game.

Sean Marshall pitched the first 4 2/3 innings for the Diamond Jaxx before leaving the game with an undisclosed injury. Marshall gave up a run on three hits. Left-hander Jordan Gerk (3-0) came on in relief to pick up the win for the Diamond Jaxx. Jermaine Van Buren got out of a potentially dangerous ninth inning to record his fourteenth save of the season.

Geovany Soto, Micah Hoffpauir and Jemel Spearman had two hits to pace the Diamond Jaxx seven hit attack.

Birmingham got a RBI double from Scott Bikowski and a solo home run from Nate Murphy for their offense. Birmingham's bullpen combined to retire the last sixteen Diamond Jaxx hitters in a row.

Game two of the four game series features future Hall-of Famer Sammy Sosa. Sosa will be playing the next three games with the Diamond Jaxx as part of a rehabilitation assignment. Game time at Pringles Park is set for 1:05 p.m.