The streak is over! Seals win 8-6 in Calgary

The Victoria Seals snapped their 10-game losing streak on Saturday night by defeating the Calgary Vipers 8-6 at Foothills Stadium. Colin Moro led the offensive attack with two hits and a pair of RBIs and runs scored in his first game back in his old stomping grounds. Starter Jason Kershner got the win to even his record at 2-2. "Kersh" held the Vipers to three runs in six innings of work.

The Seals trailed 3-0 entering the top of the sixth inning, but they scored four runs in that frame to take the lead for good. Brandon Villafuerte picked up his fourth save of the year by pitching the last 1 2/3 innings.

The Seals take on the Vipers in the final game of their two-game series on Sunday afternoon. Aaron Trolia (0-2, 5.95 ERA) gets the start for Victoria.

Seal Blubber Bits

• Eri Yoshida had her second start of the season on Saturday night and she had a lot more success than in her GBL debut. On Saturday, Yoshida held the powerful Yuma Scorpions to only four hits and one earned run in four innings pitched in an 8-4 Chico victory. She walked two and struck out her first GBL hitter -- Timothy Rodriguez -- in a three-pitch at-bat. Rodriguez took the first two pitches for strikes before swinging and missing on her third offering. Rodriguez bats third for Yuma and is hitting .361 on the year. Yoshida lowered her ERA to 6.43 on the season, which is better than the ERA of three pitchers on the Victoria Seals pitching staff.
• Rumours were floating around recently that the Yuma Scorpions might be moving to Mexicali, Mexico. The GBL denies that a move is afoot. However, the CEO of the league, Dave Kaval, has admitted that the Scorpions may shift some of their games to Mexicali this season. Yuma is averaging only 1,303 fans through its first 16 home games.
• Tom Hawthorn penned an interesting article in the Globe and Mail on umpire Ian Lamplugh. Lamplugh worked some of the Victoria Seals games last year and will likely do some more games in 2010. Thanks to our reader Tyler for pointing us to the piece.
• Ex-Seal Austin Bibens-Dirkx recovered from a rough outing on June 6th to pitch a strong game on Friday night. His record is now 5-2 with a 3.00 ERA and an sparkling 0.92 WHIP (walks plus hits per innings pitched).
• Seals alumnus Isaac Hess continues to get roughed up in his starts for the Guerreros de Oaxaca in the AAA Mexican League. Hess now has a 3-3 record and a 5.59 ERA. In his last six starts, Hess has lasted no more than 5 1/3 innings and has failed to reach the fourth inning in three of those games.
• Two GBL players were signed to big-league contracts in the last week. Lee Cruz of Yuma was signed by the Houston Astros after hitting .433 to start the season. Ben Johnson of the Orange County Flyers was signed by the Detroit Tigers after hitting .405 in the early going.