Pirates Pick Up Third Win In a Row

The Inland Valley Pirates played their second consecutive day at Mt. SAC against the SoCal Mavericks. 

The previous game saw the Pirates walk off the Mavs after being down three with two outs in the ninth. 

The Mavericks looked motivated to rectify their mistakes from the previous day in the first inning. 

Mavs hitter Kawaguchi and Pone led the game off by crushing doubles into the left-center gap to open the scoring. Bartholomew followed up by hitting a hard single to center field for a second run. 

A smooth 6-4-3 double play finally ended the inning, but the Mavs made a lot of hard contact and got two runs on the board. 

Third baseman Esteban Olazaba backed up the pitcher by crushing a ball to the right-center wall for a one-out triple. Andrew Sanchez hit a sac fly to right to score Olazaba and get the Pirates their first run. 

In the top of the third, the Pirates surrendered a walk, an error, and a single, loading the bases with one out. Bartholomew came through big for a second time, hitting a two-RBI single to extend the Mavs’ lead to 4-1. 

The Pirates made a loud comeback in the bottom of the inning, with multiple extra-base hits. Darin Osterloh hit a RBI triple over the head of the center fielder to bring in the first of five runs in the inning. Osterloh was driven in during the next plate appearance from a Diego Ortiz Sac Fly. 

Olazaba came up with two outs and smoked a double to right-center. Andrew Sanchez followed with a walk, and then Marc DiCarlo hit a hard single into the left-center gap to tie the game and continue the rally. 

Jordan Viramontes came up next and hit the hardest ball of the day into deep left-center to drive in both Sanchez and DiCarlo to extend the Pirates’ lead to 6-4. 

On the bump, Austin Kirkwood took over and threw two impressive shutout innings. Kirkwood was followed by Noe Novella, who pitched the final three innings, only allowing one run in the seventh. 

The Pirates countered once again, with Roman Cruz hitting an RBI single to maintain a two-run lead. 

7-5 was the final score of the game. The Pirates have now guaranteed a season split with the Mavericks by winning two of their first four CPCL matchups. 

The Pirates will be in action again on Thursday and Friday with the chance to extend their winning streak to five.