A topsy-turvy affair broke out in the second game of the best of three SBL semifinal series on Wednesday night at Cal Poly Pomona as the Pirates held on to win 10-9 and sweep the #1 seeded Solana Beach Cardinals.
After falling behind 2-0 in the top of the first, Inland Valley answered with a run in the bottom of the frame on a Brennan McKenzie RBI single to make it a 2-1 ballgame.
The Cardinals tacked on two more in the second thanks to a couple errors to extend the margin to 4-1.
The Pirates responded with two in the third to cut it back to one run, this time at 4-3. Jonathan de Marte ripped in his first RBI of the day and McKenzie cranked home his second RBI.
Inland Valley plated four in the fifth inning as they took the lead for the first time 7-4. De Marte blasted a three-run bomb over the left field fence for the second straight day. Hayden Wright added an RBI single as well.
Solana Beach answered immediately with three in the top of the sixth to tie it up at 7-7.
The Pirates went right back to work regaining the lead in the bottom of the sixth on a Zack Cooper RBI single to make it 8-7.
The Cardinals fought back once more to tie it at 8 apiece in the top of the eighth.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Pirates again took a lead as Alec Petrone came through with a big two-run base hit.
The Pirates will play the Surf in the SBL Championship Game on Saturday night at 6 p.m. at Blair Field.
| Pirates | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Pitcher | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA |
| 9 | Wade, K | 4.0 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 6.55 |
| 22 | Bernal, A | 2.0 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5.14 |
| 3 |  Walker, J |
2.0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1.69 |
| 27 |  Corona, A |
1.0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4.35 |
| 9 | 11 | 9 | 6 | 4 | 12 | |||
| Pirates | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| # | Batter | P | AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | AVG |
| 5 | Petrone, A | SS | 4 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .300 |
| 29 | Cooper, Z | OF | 2 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .289 |
| 12 | Jones, J | OF | 3 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .194 |
| 8 | de Marte, J | 3B | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | .264 |
| 34 | Bryant, J | 3B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .163 |
| 10 | Mckenzie, B | 1B | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .375 |
| 19 | Micketti, M | OF | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .295 |
| 6 | Hopkins, J | OF | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .255 |
| 15 | Wright, H | OF | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .233 |
| 7 | Cordoba, N | OF | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .271 |
| 1 | Vargas, A | C | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .284 |
| 31 | Marshall, L | C | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .266 |
| 14 | Verrone, C | SS | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .219 |
| 21 | Katz, J | OF | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .283 |
| 17 | Luzzi, N | OF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .269 |
| 35 | 10 | 13 | 10 | 3 | 2 | ||||
Batting
2B: J.Jones (3), J.de Marte (2).
HP: A.Petrone (2).
HR: J.de Marte (3).
RBI: A.Petrone 2 (7), Z.Cooper (6), J.de Marte 4 (17), B.Mckenzie 2 (13), H.Wright (11).
SB: B.Mckenzie (4), N.Luzzi (6).