Scorps earn hard-fought win

After there was lightning during Monday night's Scorpions game, it only made sense that there was thunder Tuesday.

The benches emptied three times in the game against Chico, including one brawl that resulted in three ejections, among them Yuma starter Evan White.

But that didn't stop Yuma from scoring six in the bottom of the eighth and erasing a four-run deficit in a 9-7 win Tuesday at Desert Sun Stadium.

Yuma - needing as many wins as possible in the season's closing week to make the playoffs - trailed 7-3 and looked lifeless after the ejections in the fifth as Chico's Eric Sheridan faced the minimum 15 batters in the third through seventh innings, thanks in part to his defense turning three double plays.

But Yuma exploded in the eighth, taking the lead for good on a two-run single by Jose Rodriguez that scored Maikel Jova and A.J. Valentine - who both reached on run-scoring hits.

"We're in a pennant race and fighting for our lives, kind of literally tonight," said Yuma manager Mike Marshall, who was ejected in the fifth unrelated to the brawl. "I was happy to see the guys have a great eighth inning and win a ballgame, We've been losing a lot of those lately."

But the other excitement started in the top of the third, when Chico runner Casey Garrison exchanged words with Yuma shortstop Dionys Cesar. That led to a shoving match and the benches emptied, but order was restored quickly and play resumed.

Marshall said Cesar thought the Outlaws were giving pitches or locations from second base, and that he must have said something about it to Garrison.

Chris Corso followed two batters later with a two-run single off Yuma starter Evan White. Julian Benavides scored ahead of Garrison, who took out Pete Farina at the plate even though the throw was cutoff. The single gave the Outlaws the lead at 4-3.

Farina had to leave the game in bottom of the fourth due to a injured hand. When Garrison came up for the first time after the earlier incident, White plunked him in the arm on the first pitch.

Garrison didn't hesitate and headed straight for White. White ducked to try use Garrison's momentum against him - Garrison stormed out at full speed - but Garrison landed on top of White and began pounding him as the benches emptied again.

White, Cesar and Garrison were tossed from the game as play stopped and Yuma reliever David Stringer warmed up.

"Evan had a big guy coming at him, about twice his size," Marshall said. "He ducked him, but the guy had him in a little bit of a precarious position. And I think that's why Dionys got thrown out of the game - he saw Evan was in trouble and he tried to pull him off, and they threw him out for throwing punches, but we were just trying to get their guy off of him.

"I don't think that was fair - their guys charges the mound and we lose two of our guys."

Stringer got the first out, but then hit Chris Corso in the helmet. Corso started toward the mound and the benches emptied for a third time, but like the first, nothing happened.

The next batter, Matt Ceriani, made the Scorpions pay for the two hit batters, launching a three-run home run to put the game seemingly out of reach.

In the bottom of fifth Marshall was ejected for arguing with the umpires - he had argued two times previously - not counting the three bench-clearing incidents.

"Those umps have been at our homestands recently and call after call after call has been going against us," Marshall said. "I'm going to stand up for my team. I thought we were getting the short end of the calls. And I'm going to let the umpires know."

The Scorpions (20-19) avoided their fourth straight loss as they attempt to keep their playoff fate as much in their own hands as possible.

"We had our catcher hurt, we're short on players, we have our pitchers hitting because the DH had to be put into the game - I give these guys a lot of credit," Marshall said. "We've had a tough week, we've had the worst travel in the league going to Canada twice in two weeks. These guys have battled through a lot. To come back and win a game to stay in the pennant race - they really wanted it."

Yuma fell down 1-0 - Garrison scored that run after an infield single - but scored three in the bottom of the second to regain the lead. Ryan Barba hit a two-run single then scored on a double by Cesar.

Tyler Pearson pitched 3 2/3 innings of two-run relief to get the win, and James Garcia pitched the ninth for the save.

The teams play in El Centro tonight on Barnyard Night, which will benefit the Impreial Valley 4-H Club