May 24, 2009 — Three Cardinals pitchers combined to throw a three-hit, nine strikeout, 5-0 shutout of the Yankees Saturday afternoon in the Raphael Jackson AA baseball league at the D.C. Canegata Ball Park.
The Cards, who now find themselves solidly entrenched in second place in the league standings, have now defeated the league's best in the first-place Vikings and their latest victim, the Yankees. Although they are in second place at the moment, most local baseball enthusiasts believe that the Cards — with an apparently unlimited supply of live young pitching arms imported from Puerto Rico — are the team to beat this year in the local AA baseball league. Their veteran first baseman, Norbert Pickering Jr., for one, is confident that this is so.
"As long as our pitching is here we believe that we can beat anybody," he said. "We have a nice enough hitting attack to complement our strong pitching, so we're definitely looking to win it all."
Batting first, the Cards scored all the runs they would ever need in the top of the first inning on a two-run single by Miguel Rodriguez and an unearned run. Fernando Diaza was the first of the three Cardinals hurlers to face the Yankees in the bottom of the inning, and he promptly put them down in order for an easy 1-2-3 inning.
After three scoreless innings, the Cards added one run in the top of the fifth on a inside-the-park home run off the bat of Fernando Quezuder for a 4-0 lead.
The Cards then picked up an unearned run in the top of the seventh to close out the scoring for the game and a 5-0 whitewash of the Yankees.
Diaza pitched five strong innings of one-hit baseball while fanning five batters along the way to pick up the victory. Three Cardinals pitched the final two innings to preserve the shutout. Eddie Perez, who pitched a decent game for the Yankees, got the loss. Top hitters for the Cards were Quezuder, 2 for 2 with a home run and one RBI; Norbert Pickering, 2 for 4; and Rodriguez, 1 for 3 with two RBIs. For the Yankees, Carlos Morales went 2 for 3 and Perez went 1 for 3.
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