Late inning heroics lifted the Pirates to a 6-5 victory over the Orange County Surf on Tuesday afternoon at Scolinos Field.
The Surf got out to an early lead with an unearned run in the very first inning.
The Pirates scored the equalizer in the bottom of the fourth when Alec Petrone came home on an RBI groundout by Mario Micketti.
However, the Surf immediately answered right back with three runs in the top half of the fifth.
In the bottom of the sixth, JP Hopkins brought the Pirates a run closer with an RBI double, cutting the lead to 4-2.
The momentum was short-lived, as, much like in the fifth inning, the Surf answered the Pirates run with a run of their own in the top of the seventh, pushing the lead back to three.
The Pirates, however, responded right back in the bottom of the seventh. With two on and one out, Quinn Cooper drilled a two-run double into the gap in left-center, cutting the lead to 5-4.
Pirates reliever, Art Corona, retired the Surf in order, in both the eighth and ninth inning to keep the Pirates within a run heading into their last at-bat.
The bottom of the ninth started out with a bang as Jonathan De Marte led off the inning by crushing the first pitch he saw from closer, Josh Devries, over the left field fence for a game-tying solo home run. A few batters later, Brennan McKenzie came up with two outs and the winning run on second and delivered with a walk-off RBI single.
Pirates starter, Sean Patton, pitched 4 2/3 innings, giving up four runs (only three of them earned) on four hits while striking out four.
The victory moved the Pirates to 5-2 in league play and moved them into a first place tie with the Surf.
The Pirates will be in action again on Friday, when the Solana Beach Cardinals visit Scolinos Field. Game time is 6:00 PM.
| Pirates | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| 18 | Patton, S | 4.2 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5.19 |
| 9 | Wade, K | 1.1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 11.57 |
| 39 | Bates, S | 1.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9.00 |
| 27 |  Corona, A |
2.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4.77 |
| 9 | 9 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 7 | |||
Pitching
BF: S.Patton 23, K.Wade 6, S.Bates 5, A.Corona 6.
P-S: S.Patton 77-44, K.Wade 15-14, S.Bates 19-10, A.Corona 25-15.
WP: S.Patton (1).
| Pirates | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Batter | P | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | AVG |
| 5 | Patrone, A | SS | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .231 |
| 12 | Jones, J | CF | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .160 |
| 6 | Hopkins, J | CF | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .316 |
| 19 | Micketti, M | DH | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .174 |
| 33 | Mckenzie, C | EH | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .417 |
| 28 | Barron, B | EH | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .143 |
| 31 | Marshall, L | C | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .400 |
| 1 | Vargas, A | C | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .238 |
| 8 | de Marte, J | 3B | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .205 |
| 11 | Luzzi, N | LF | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .188 |
| 21 | Katz, J | LF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .217 |
| 15 | Wright, H | RF | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .200 |
| 24 | Cooper, Q | RF | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | .176 |
| 13 | Glass, K | 2B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .091 |
| 2 | Torres, A | 2B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .190 |
| 34 | Bryant, J | 1B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .250 |
| 10 | Mckenzie, B | 1B | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .379 |
| 35 | 6 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 4 | ||||
Batting
2B: A.Patrone (2), J.Hopkins (2), Q.Cooper (1).
HP: A.Vargas (1), B.Mckenzie (1).
HR: J.de Marte (1).
RBI: J.Hopkins (2), M.Micketti (1), J.de Marte (4), Q.Cooper 2 (3), B.Mckenzie (1).
SB: J.Katz (1).
Team LOB: 8.
Fielding
A: A.Patrone 3 (19), J.de Marte 3 (9), K.Glass 3 (10), S.Bates (1).
E: L.Marshall (1).
PO: A.Patrone (13), J.Jones (10), J.Hopkins 3 (10), L.Marshall 4 (26), A.Vargas 3 (21), N.Luzzi (8), H.Wright (8), Q.Cooper (2), K.Glass (7), J.Bryant 6 (23), B.Mckenzie 5 (18).
SBA: A.Vargas (11).
TC: A.Patrone 4 (32), J.Jones (10), J.Hopkins 3 (10), L.Marshall 5 (34), A.Vargas 3 (23), J.de Marte 3 (15), N.Luzzi (9), H.Wright (8), Q.Cooper (2), K.Glass 4 (19), J.Bryant 6 (25), B.Mckenzie 5 (20), S.Bates (1).