Bucs and Pirates Tie

The Inland Valley’s Bucs and Pirates met on Thursday for their third matchup of the year. Coming into the game, each team had won one game in the series, so the winner of Thursday’s contest would take advantage of the season series. 

In the end, neither team would. 

It was a nice, 84-degree summer day, much cooler at game time than earlier in the week. What made the game even better was the quality of pitching and the pace of play. 

Pirates’ starter Jude Favela pitched three and a third scoreless innings, striking out five and only allowing two hits. 

On the other side, Bucs’ starter Ryan Chavez also threw three scoreless innings, striking out four and only allowing one hit. 

Wyatt Prieto relieved Favela in the fourth and went on to throw three and a third innings himself. Prieto did not allow a hit, but due to a walk and a throwing error, Bryan Bradshaw was able to hit a sacrifice fly to bring in the game’s first run in the top of the sixth. 

Chavez was relieved by former Pirate Chris Gonzalez in the fourth and pitched an incredible four scoreless innings, striking out five along the way. 

Ryder Gibson pitched the last two innings for the Pirates and allowed one unearned run to extend the Bucs’ lead to 2-0. 

Down 2-0 in the bottom of the eighth, the Pirates’ bats finally woke up. Luke Medure led off the inning with a double to left. Roman Cruz singled to right to bring Medure in and bring the score within one. 

Connor Tallakson hit another single to put the winning run on first and move the tying run into scoring position. 

Isaiah Walz then hit a double into the left-center gap, scoring Cruz. The center fielder retrieved the ball, but slipped when he was about to throw, which should have allowed Tallakson to score as well, but the third base coach of the Pirates had already held him up. 

Walz, seeing the center fielder slip, advanced to third, not realizing that the runner had been held. Walz tried to get in a pickle to let Tallakson score, but he was tagged out, and the Pirates weren’t able to take the lead. 

Both teams put up scoreless innings in the ninth, but the Bucs did not have enough pitching to play extra innings, so the two sides agreed to a tie. 

The Bucs and Pirates do not play again until July 15, when the season series will finally be decided, unless they tie again, of course.