Gold Sox beat Longhorns

There may be just two weeks remaining in the season, but the Marysville Gold Sox continue to roll along.

Gridley High graduate Ty Nichols tossed six solid innings, Yuba City's Justin Lamb drove in a pair of runs and Marysville cruised to its eighth win in the last nine games with a 6-1 victory over the Nor Cal Longhorns in the opener of a four-game series at Appeal-Democrat Park on Thursday night.

Nichols allowed three hits and a run in the top of the first before settling down to throw five straight scoreless innings, improving his record to 4-1 on the summer. The Sacramento State right-hander went on to allow eight hits, striking out nine and walking none.

Lamb drove in Johnny Rubino in the bottom of the first to tie the game, and the Gold Sox went ahead for good when Rubino stole home on the front end of a double-steal in the third.

Marysville added an unearned run in the fifth and Lamb drove in another sacrifice fly latter in the inning to give the Sox a 4-1 cushion.

Brooke Brooks finished the night 2 for 3 including an RBI single in the sixth, and Colby Harrison chipped in with a sacrifice fly in the seventh to complete the scoring.

Rubino went on to score three of the six runs for the Gold Sox (30-10), who were outhit in the game 11-8.

With the win, Marysville improved its record to 25-3 all-time against the Longhorns.

The two teams will continue the series tonight with Brandon Creel getting the start for the Gold Sox.

Kenton Bevacqua will take the hill on Saturday and will be followed in the rotation by Cory Rhodes.

The series was originally scheduled as a three-game set, however, Sunday's game was added on when the Military All-Star team was deployed.