Oilers force their way past San Diego

Peninsula advances in NBC tournament on a 3-1 win

Eddie Orozco threw 5.1 innings of three-hit baseball.

The Oilers must not have partied too hard after last night's 8-0 trouncing of the Rock City Red Sox in Wichita, because they were able to get out of bed in good enough form to dispatch the San Diego Force in today's early game by a final score of 3-1.

This win came thanks in no small part to the efforts of right-hander Eddie Orozco (UC Riverside), who three-hit the Force through five and a third innings, striking out 4, walking 2 and allowing no runners to cross the plate. Matt Applegate (Kansas State) finished out the sixth and seventh innings perfectly, Erik Draxton (CS Bakersfield) gave up the only run on one hit (a homer), and Chad Smith (USC) picked up the save with a one-hit inning to close out the event.

On the offensive end of the scoresheet, Pablo Bermudez (Florida Int'l) and Tyler Grimes (Wichita State) had two hits apiece with Bermudez scoring one of the runs, and James Lilley (New Mexico State) and Michael Miller (Cal Poly) each had RBI's. Bermudez has hit safely in each of the Oilers' games so far in the tournament and is carrying a batting average of .429 as of tonight.

With tonight's win, the Oilers advance to face the League City Hornets, who were their original first-round opponent before the Goldpanners-withdrawal-induced bracket shuffling occurred. The game is set to take place at 1:00 p.m. central time (10 a.m. Alaska).