The Inland Valley Pirates defeated the Arroyo Seco Saints in their Sunset League opener on Thursday at Scolinos Field by a final tally of 8-1.
The Pirates’ offensive explosion was complemented by a strong performance from starting pitcher Brieon Barron and scoreless relief from the bullpen.
The Pirates wasted no time getting on the board, taking an early 1-0 lead on an RBI groundout by Hayden Wright in the first inning.
The Saints picked up the equalizer in the top of the second to tie the score at one.
However, the Pirates immediately answered back in the their half of the inning. With the bases loaded, Jarrett Anton grounded out, scoring JP Hopkins from third to give the Pirates a 2-1 lead.
A two-out, RBI single by Zack Cooper pushed the lead to 3-1.
In the third inning, with the bases loaded once again, Justin Katz came home on a groundout by Hayden Wright giving the Pirates a 4-1 lead.
The Pirates kept their foot on the gas pedal in the fourth inning as JP Hopkins came home on a throwing error. Later in the inning, Alberto Vargas scored the second run of the inning on Zack Cooper’s second RBI single, giving the Swashbucklers a 6-1 lead after four innings.
The score remained 6-1 until the bottom of the seventh when the Pirates struck again.
A fielding error by the shortstop allowed Mario Micketti to score from second base to give the Pirates a 7-1 lead. Later in the inning, the Pirates tacked on one more run for good measure on Jonathan De Marte’s two-out RBI single.
The Pirates pitching and defense held serve from there as the jaunty crew sailed easily to an 8-1 victory.
Zack Cooper stood out offensively going 2-for-2 with two runs batted in. Pitchers, Conlan McKenzie, Art Corona, Quinn Cooper and Aaron Torres aided Barron in his effort with six innings of scoreless relief out of the bullpen.
The victory was the Pirates first of the season and improved their record to 1-5, but at 1-0 in SBL play, the lead the South division.
The swashbucklers will set sail for Pasadena where they will draw their swords against the Saints once more on Friday, June 10th at Brookside Park. Game time is 6:10 PM.
| Pirates | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Batter | P | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | AVG |
| 12 | Patrone, A | SS | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .083 |
| 5 | Luzzi, N | LF | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .167 |
| 3 | Jones, J | LF | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .167 |
| 38 | Wright, H | RF | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | .182 |
| 30 | de Marte, J | 3B | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | .375 |
| 26 | Hopkins, J | CF | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .429 |
| 14 | Vargas, A | C | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .333 |
| 37 | Verrone, C | DH | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .200 |
| 42 | Cordoba, N | DH | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .375 |
| 10 | Anton, J | 2B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | .200 |
| 18 | Cooper, Z | 1B | 2 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .300 |
| 8 | Mckenzie, B | 1B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .333 |
| 4 | Katz, J | EH | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .429 |
| 6 | Micketti, M | EH | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .200 |
| 33 | 8 | 12 | 5 | 5 | 6 | ||||
Batting
2B: M.Micketti (1).
HP: A.Patrone (1).
RBI: A.Patrone (1), H.Wright (4), J.de Marte (1), Z.Cooper 2 (3).
CS: Z.Cooper (1).
SB: A.Patrone (1), J.Hopkins 2 (3), A.Vargas (2), Z.Cooper (1).
Team LOB: 7.
Fielding
A: A.Patrone 3 (3), J.de Marte (2), J.Anton 5 (5), C.Mckenzie (1).
E: A.Vargas (1).
PO: A.Patrone 3 (5), J.Jones (1), H.Wright (1), J.de Marte (2), J.Hopkins 3 (3), A.Vargas 4 (6), J.Anton 3 (3), Z.Cooper 7 (12), B.Mckenzie 4 (4).
SBA: A.Vargas (3).
TC: A.Patrone 6 (8), J.Jones (1), H.Wright (1), J.de Marte 2 (5), J.Hopkins 3 (3), A.Vargas 5 (7), J.Anton 8 (8), Z.Cooper 7 (12), B.Mckenzie 4 (4), C.Mckenzie (3).
| Pirates | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| 7 |  Barron, B |
3.0 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 3.00 |
| 33 | Mckenzie, C | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2.45 |
| 22 | Corona, A | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4.91 |
| 41 | Cooper, Q | 2.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 13 | Torres, A | 2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0.00 |
| 9 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 4 | |||