Published: August 08, 2007 11:57 pm      

AAABA: Raiders remain unbeaten

The Washington franchise might not have participated in the AAABA Tournament the past couple of years, but in its return, it hasn’t missed a beat.

Facing two of the tournament favorites during the past two days, the McLean Raiders bested New Orleans this time, winning 5-2 during a sweltering afternoon at Point Stadium on Wednesday.

“It’s been a tough road to hoe, there’s no doubt about it,” said Washington manager Tim Brown, whose club beat Baltimore 6-5 on Tuesday. “We’ve seen three quality ballclubs. Being our first year, and mine personally in the tournament, we didn’t know what to expect and it’s been a dogfight. To come out here and get the performances that we’ve had, against quality teams, to come out 3-0 says a lot about the character of the guys that we have, our general manager, the whole organization.”

Kevin DiManna went the distance for Washington, striking out six and allowing eight hits to a team that put together a 21-run effort the day before.

DiManna allowed lone runs during the third and fourth innings, and faced just one batter over the minimum for the rest of the contest.

Jordan Poirrier threw a strong game for New Orleans, but Washington strung together two runs in the eighth inning to build the three-run cushion.

Poirrier allowed five runs – four earned – in 71⁄3 innings.

He struck out six before yielding to closer Joe Zimmerman, who got the final two outs.

Washington moves on to face the only other unbeaten of the tournament, Philadelphia, in a game this afternoon.

New Orleans will battle Altoona – which lost to Philadelphia earlier in the day – in an elimination-round contest.

“We’ve seen everybody around here and our club matches up well,” New Orleans manager Barry Butera said. “If we take care of our business, then we’ll be playing on the last day, I really believe that. It takes two losses to get out of here and we only have one. Somebody has to beat us nine more innings and I think we’ll be around when it comes to Sunday. I think we’ll be one of the clubs, I really believe that.”

The Raiders never trailed on Wednesday, getting a run from Jason Kitchen in the first, Liston Gore in the third, Kevin Watkins in the fifth, and runs from Dominic Boyles and Robert Harris in the eighth.

New Orleans answered with Kyle Olasin’s run in the third that tied it at 1, and Brett Palermo’s in the fourth that pulled his team even at 2.

Boyles went 2-for-4 for the Raiders and drove in two runs while Robert Shields went 2-for-2 with an RBI. Watkins tripled in the fifth on a long shot to right-center field.

New Orleans got 2-for-4 efforts from Jerad Comarda, a day after tying a AAABA Tournament record with nine RBIs, and Palermo.