The wind whistled through the oak trees beyond the left field fence at Scolinos Field on the campus of Cal Poly Pomona, where the Inland Valley’s Legends and Pirates faced off.
Outside of the Palm Springs Power, the Legends may be the hottest team in the Inland Valley. Coming into today, the Legends were unbeaten against the Pirates and the Bucs.
The Pirates, on the other hand, have been searching for their second win after losing five in a row after their opening-day victory over the Bucs.
The last time these two teams met, the Legends won 7-1 behind seven shutout innings from Gavin Reeve. Today, Reeve was again given the start against the Pirates with the prospect of dominating them once more — and dominate he did.
Initially, it looked like the Pirates had figured out the craft lefty after multiple batters reached base, but Reeve was able to work out for the early jam.
After that, it was smooth sailing for Reeve. In a near-identical stat line from last week, Reeve pitched six scoreless innings, allowing only three hits and three walks.
Having a competitive pitcher like Reeve on the mound gives the Legends confidence that they can compete and win.
“He’s dominant, and every time he gets on the mound he gives us a chance to win. He throws strikes and lets the defense work for him, and that’s all we can ask from him,” said assistant coach Marcellus Pearson.
On the other side of the ball, the Legends continued their dominance. The Legends were held scoreless after one trip through the lineup, but the bats heated up in their second trip.
In the third, the Legends scored three and added another two in the fourth to give themselves a 5-0 lead.
The Legends scored one more run in the seventh before the Pirates finally responded with one of their own. Unfortunately for the Pirates, this run was isolated and would be the only one they scored on the day.
The Legends countered the sole Pirates’ run with two more to push their lead to 8-1 — the eventual final score.
Rising high school senior Jayden Daya impressively finished the game off for the Legends to improve their overall record to 4-5 and help them remain undefeated against the Bucs and Pirates.
Key improvements in defense and pitching, along with quality hitting approaches have helped propel the Legends up the standings after a rough Opening Day.
“Defense and pitching have done a great job as the season has gone along. Offensively we’ve been more aggressive early in the count,” Pearson said. “We’ve been taking advantage of the fastball early in the count and driving the ball in the gap.”
Despite the great progress, the team recognizes there is still more to work on.
“There’s always room to get better; we had three errors on defense today so we can always clean that up,” said Pearson.
The Pirates have now fallen to last place in the CPCL and have a record of 1-6 this season.
They will play for the fourth day in a row on Friday at Cal Poly Pomona’s Scolinos Field at 4 PM.
Inland Valley Baseball Association 