Pirates Offense Picks Up Second Win of the Season

The Inland Valley Pirates hosted the Colton Nighthawks at Azusa Pacific on Monday. The Nightwaks are one of the CPCL’s two new members, along with the SoCal Mavericks. 

Nighthawk outfielder Matt Bline made his presence known in the first at-bat of the game by crushing a home run halfway up the net in right-center field. On the mound, the Nighthawks started Oregon signee Jaxon Baker

The Pirates wasted no time starting a rally, loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the 1st. First baseman Cole Howarth drove in a run on a fielder’s choice to tie the game. 

Another run came in on a wild pitch, and Marc DiCarlo drew a walk to load the bases up again. Outfielder Jordan Viramontes smashed a double into left field to give the Pirates an early 4-1 lead. 

In the 2nd inning, a pair of rough defensive errors for the Pirates allowed the Nighthawks to bring in two runs. 

In the 3rd, Georgia senior Cole Kinarsky hit a towering double off the wall in center field. DiCarlo subsequently drove Koniarsky in and then scored on a wild pitch later in the inning. The 3rd was capped off with an RBI single from George Holt that drove in another two runs. 

The Nighthawks would go on to score another four runs in the game, but only two of them were earned. Of the seven runs the Pirates gave up, a total of three were earned. 

In the 5th inning, pitcher Ryder Gibson was brought in, and from then on, the Nighthawks could not gain any momentum. Gibson, throwing hard from a low release point with quality off-speed pitches, struck out five and only allowed three hits. 

Heading into the bottom of the 8th, the game was still relatively close at 11-7 due to the errors made by the Pirates, but the offense made up for the mistakes. 

DiCarlo drove in the first run of the 8th on a groundout to short. Shortstop Isaiah Walz followed by poking a single past the Nighthawks diving second baseman bringing in two more runs. 

The final blow of the impressive offensive performance was dealt by Waldy Perez, who scalded a double over the head of the center fielder. 

The final score of the game was 16-7. The Pirates’ offense has vastly improved from last year, and they really look like they could be contenders thus far.

The Pirates drew an impressive 10 walks and got 13 hits, with Hunter Meyer, Koniarsky, Haworth, and Walz all having two hits.