On Tuesday afternoon at Cal Poly Pomona, the pitcher of the month in June, Andrew Alvarez was set to duel the pitcher of the month in July for the Power, Morgan Earman. Surely runs would be at a premium.
That’s why they play the games.
The Pirates (26-7, 12-4) fell 18-13 to the Palm Springs Power (35-8, 12-4) in a game that was completed on Wednesday at Palm Springs Stadium after Game 1 was suspended due to darkness on Tuesday.
The Pirates fell behind 4-0, but answered with a five-run third inning for the second consecutive day to take the lead.
Greg Espinosa ripped an RBI single scoring Bryce Cherry. Anthony Virgen knocked in Espinosa. Kyle Garlick crushed a three-run homer to give the Pirates the 5-4 lead at the end of three.
Inland Valley tacked on one in the fourth as Kyle Jackson cranked an RBI double scoring Espinosa to extend the lead to 6-4.
The momentum continued as the Pirates plated three more runs in the fifth.
A.J. David cracked an RBI double and Jacob Bernardy added an RBI as well. Jonny Reynoso, Christian Kelley and David scored the three runs to make it a 9-4 ballgame.
Palm Springs finally stopped the streak of nine unanswered runs with one in the sixth to pull within four runs, but the Pirates came back with another two in the bottom half of the inning.
David belted a two-run double scoring Reynoso and Kelley as Inland Valley saw the lead expand to 11-5.
With just eight outs to record to take a 1-0 series lead and a six-run lead, it seemed that the Pirates would definitely hold on, especially considering how dominant the pitching staff has been all season long. (2.12 team ERA)
Unfortunately, that was not the case today as the Power had a six-run seventh and followed it up with a six-run eighth to go from trailing by six runs to leading by 6.
The Pirates tallied another run in the bottom of the eighth to make it 17-12 on a Nathan Virgen RBI single that scored Jason Padlo.
Palm Springs came right back with a run of their own in the top of the ninth as it became a six-run margin once again.
Inland Valley finished the scoring off with an RBI sacrifice fly by Anthony Virgen scoring Espinosa.
| Batting | AB | R | 1B | H | RBI | BB | K |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Greg Espinosa | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Jonny Reynoso | 6 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kyle Jackson | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| A.J. David | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| Anthony Virgen | 4 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 |
| Nathan Virgen | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Nolan Henley | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Jason Padlo | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jacob Bernardy | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Christian Kelley | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Bryce Cherry Jr. | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kyle Garlick | 6 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| Totals | 39 | 13 | 10 | 17 | 12 | 5 | 2 |
2B: Jonny Reynoso, Kyle Jackson 3, A.J. David 2
HR: Kyle Garlick
TB: Greg Espinosa 2, Jonny Reynoso 5, Kyle Jackson 6, A.J. David 5, Anthony Virgen2, Nathan Virgen, Jacob Bernardy, Kyle Garlick 4
RBI: Greg Espinosa, Kyle Jackson, A.J. David 3, Anthony Virgen 2, Nathan Virgen, Jacob Bernardy, Kyle Garlick 3
SAC: Anthony Virgen, Christian Kelley 2
ROE: Christian Kelley, Bryce Cherry Jr.
HBP: Nathan Virgen, Jason Padlo
SB: Jonny Reynoso
| Pitching | IP | #P | TB | H | R | ER | BB | K | HR | S% |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brett Early | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .000 |
| Aaron Reynoso | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Andrew Alvarez | 6.1 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 3 | 8 | 0 | .000 |
| Jordan Scheftz | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .000 |
| Jack Johnson | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Kevin Glomb | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .000 |
| Totals | 9.0 | 0 | 0 | 22 | 18 | 17 | 6 | 10 | 0 | — |