The Inland Valley Pirates and Legends met on Friday for the first time this season. The two clubs came into the game leading the standings, only holding one loss each.
Both teams are in a good position to make the playoffs at the end of the year, and the winner of the series between them will likely be the No. 1 seed.
The game kicked off at 4PM and the starting pitching was fantastic.
Pirates starter Tre Minisee threw two scoreless innings, striking out three.
On the other side, Legends starter Jayden Daya pitched five scorless innings, only allowing three hits.
Minisee was relieved after the second by Bobby Mahoney, who continued the dominance by twirling two no-hit innings.
The Legends finally broke through in the fifth inning on an RBI single from Blake Helsper off of Pirates’ reliever Jacob Yun. Yun was able to shut down the inning without allowing another run and he proceeded to pitch a clean second inning.
After five socreless innings, Daya was left in to try to pitch the sixth, but the Pirates hitters finally figured him out.
Vaughn Coleman hit a leadoff single and subsequently scored on a Diego Ortiz single. Luke Medure followed Ortiz by hitting a double to put two runners in scoring position.
Diego Orozco hit a hard single to center to bring in Ortiz and give the Pirates the lead. Cole Howarth hit a fly ball to left to score Medure and extend the lead to two runs before the inning finally ended.
The Legends backed up Daya by responding big in the top of the seventh.
Ryder Young started off the inning by reaching on an error in the infield. Two hit batters loaded the bases, but there was two outs so the Legends needed someone to come up big.
Leadoff hitter Tyler Shigenaka came in clutch hitting a single with two strikes to bring in the tying run.
Tristan Gallegos hit another single to bring in the go-ahead run and Bobby Benavidez hit a third consecutive single to bring in two more runs and extend the lead to 6-3.
In the bottom of the inning the Pirates were able to load the bases with two outs and Medure drove in two runs on a single to draw the score within one.
The Legends were ultimately able to get out of the inning without forfeiting the lead.
The eight inning was clean for both sides, and the Pirates were able to keep the Legends at bay in the ninth.
In the bottom of the inning, Connor Tallakson hit a leadoff double. Legends pitcher Cole Monsen recovered by getting the next two hitters out.
With two outs and the winning run now on third, Ortiz hit a slow groundball up the middle that skipped off the bag and deflected into the outfield to tie the game.
Ortiz celebrated the clutch hit, but was then ruled out because he had entered the game defensively despite being the DH. When a DH enters the game defensively, the batting spot must be relinquished to the pitcher.
Since Ortiz batted again instead othe Pitcher, he was ruled out and the Legends took home the win.
The Legends are now the uncontested first-place team in the CPCL.
Inland Valley Baseball Association 