The Palm Beach Cardinals now have the best record in the Florida State League.
Danny Diekroeger played a big role in the offense on Thursday night, as the Cardinals took on the Daytona Tortugas in the series finale of a four game series at Roger Dean Stadium. As for pitching, starting on the mound for Palm Beach was Austin Gomber.
And overall, Gomber, as well as the bullpen pitchers for Palm Beach, pitched a phenomenal game, throwing nine scoreless innings, and striking out 11 batters. This was the first shutout thrown by Palm Beach this season. Gomber would get his first win of the 2016 season as he pitched five innings, giving up four hits, walking two, and striking out seven.
Gomber, however, did get into some sticky situations during the game, but was able to bounce back from each one.
Cody Schumacher pitched in relief for Gomber in the top of the sixth inning. Schumacher ended up getting into a situation where he had the bases loaded and only one out, but he got Chris Tromp to strike out swinging and was able to force an inning-ending double play to escape the inning. Schumacher also got through the seventh inning unscathed.
In the eighth inning, Silfredo Garcia pitched in relief of Schumacher, and much like the two pitchers before him, had gotten into situations that put the game in danger for Palm Beach, but was still able to get out of them. Garcia recorded his second save of the season as he pitched two innings giving up one hit and striking out two.
The Cardinals got their lone run (and the lone run of the game) in the bottom of the first inning.
Daren Seferina led things off in the bottom of the first with a single. During the next at-bat, he stole second base, putting him in scoring position for Diekroeger. And Diekroeger hit a single to centerfield, which scored Seferina to make it a 1-0 game. It was his team leading sixth RBI in the game.
The Cardinals victory kept Palm Beach in first place by two games over St. Lucie as they fell to Dunedin 3-0.
Palm Beach (7-1) will head to Dunedin to play the Dunedin Blue Jays starting Friday night, as they send Jacob Evans to pitch.
