Tag: sports

The first-place Inland Valley Legends hosted the Bucs at APU’s Cougar Baseball Complex on Tuesday, and they controlled the game from the beginning. 

The Legends came away with a dominant 8-2 victory, and the first six runs came in the first. 

Jake Entrup got the start for the Bucs, but he struggled mightily, walking six batters in the first and throwing 52 pitches. 

Along with drawing six walks, the Legends came up with some big hits. Shortstop Diego Vazquez hit a monster double off the wall in left-center to drive in the first two runs of the game. 

Austin Brown hit a Sacrifice Fly to bring in another run. The other runs were brought in on two consecutive bases-loaded walks. 

Ultimately, the Legends drove in six of their eight runs in the first. 

Legends starting pitcher Brandon Wyland was fantastic from the start. Wyland was unhittable for the first few innings, picking up a few strikeouts along the way. Wyland ended up giving up two runs and a couple of hard hits later in his start, but he recovered and finished strong. 

Gavin Smith relieved Brandon Wyland and finished the game for the Legends. Smith made quick work of the Bucs in each inning, and despite the long first inning, the game lasted just about two hours due to the excellent pitching of Wyland and Smith. 

The Bucs did not have many highlights on the day, but they did have a few positive moments. Bryan Bradshaw hit a triple down the rightfield line to start the second inning, but did not score. 

In the third, the first two batters, Crowe and Vanderhook, both reached safely and later scored on a Sacrifice Fly and a Fielder’s Choice. 

The Legends are now 11-3 on the season, nearing their win total from last year with 10 games left on the schedule

On Wednesday, the Inland Valley Baseball Association will be hosting a Home Run Derby and All-Star Game for the Sunset Baseball League at APU. 

The Home Run Derby will be at 5:45 pm, and the game will be at 7 pm.  

In their second day in Palm Springs, the Inland Valley Pirates looked to complete a weekend sweep of the Palm Springs Power. 

The Power haven’t lost two games in a row in years, and the Pirates had the chance to make it happen. They were very motivated to do so. 

Vaughn Coleman drew a leadoff walk, and then Esteban Olazaba hit an RBI triple deep down the rightfield line. 

As Olazaba advanced to third, the second baseman cut off the throw from the rightfielder and attempted to throw to third, but he threw the ball straight into the ribs of the shortstop standing 10 feet away from him. 

As the shortstop reeled on the ground, Olazaba trotted into home safely to create a 2-0 lead for the Pirates. 

In the top of the third, Hunter Meyer and Olazaba led off the inning with singles. Jordan Viramontes hit a hard groundball to first, advancing the runners to second and third. 

With two outs, Ashton Romero came up huge, hitting a single to centerfield, scoring both runners and extending the score to 4-0. 

The Power chipped away in the third, fourth, and fifth innings, scoring one run in each inning. 

In the sixth inning, the Pirates brought in Jacob Yun, who immediately put a stop to the Power’s momentum. 

In the seventh, the Pirates brought in Austin Kirkwood, but he walked the bases loaded and was taken out after getting only one out. 

Luckily for the Pirates, reliever Jackson Banuelos had his best stuff. Banuelos struck out the first batter he faced, then got a pop-up to left to get out of the messy inning. 

In the bottom of the eighth, the Power got two runners on from a single and a dropped third strike, but Wyatt Prieto turned a clutch double play to end the inning and send the game into the ninth. 

In the top of the ninth, Cody White hit a Sacrifice Fly to right field, and the rightfielder made a tremendous throw home, but Connor Tallakson was able to score because the catcher dropped the ball. 

The insurance run was needed as the Power found a way to load the bases once again in the ninth. Banuelos walked a batter, giving the Power a run and moving the winning run into scoring position. 

With the game on the line, Banuelos threw a beautiful changeup to strike out the Power batter, end the game, and complete the weekend sweep. 

The Pirates had a successful road trip out to Palm Springs and will next travel to UCR to play the first-place Legends. 

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.

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.

The Inland Valley Pirates and SoCal Mavericks came together for a CPCL contest at Mt. SAC on Monday after a wonderful Father’s Day break. 

The game was the first between the Pirates and the CPCL newcomer Mavericks. 

The early innings of the game flew by with hits hard to come by for either team. The Pirates took a lead in the third inning with Esteban Olazaba grounding into a fielder’s choice to score Hunter Meyer. 

Pirates starter Landon Martin was fantastic, throwing three scoreless innings. 

In the top of the fourth, the Mavericks were able to get runners on second and third with two outs, but Meyer made an incredible diving catch in center field to maintain the Pirates’ lead. 

After six innings, the score was still 1-0, and it looked like the game might end in a pitchers’ duel. 

The Mavericks’ bats finally woke up in the seventh, and with the help of two walks and an error by the Pirates, they were able to score two runs and take the lead. 

In the eighth inning, the Mavericks worked two quick outs, but the Pirates began an improbable rally by hitting a single and drawing a walk. With two runners on and one in scoring position, Connor Tallakson shot a line drive into center to tie the game. 

A Wyatt Prieto single returned the lead into the Pirates’ hands. With two outs, Vaugn Coleman hit a hard groundball to the Mavericks’ shortstop, who struggled to field it cleanly, which brought in an insurance run to make it 4-2. 

With the lead now back in their hands and the pitching great all day, it seemed like the Pirates would breeze through the ninth inning and win the game, especially with a two-run lead.

This assumption was wrong. 

The Mavericks led off the inning with a single. Pirates’ pitching stalled the Mavs’ momentum by getting a fly out, but started it right back up again by issuing a walk. A single from Kamata brought in one run, and the tying run was now in scoring position. 

A single to the right fielder loaded the bases, putting the go-ahead run in scoring position. The Mavs didn’t need to get any more hits to tie as the Pirates issued another walk. A single from Runge brought in one more run to give the Mavs the lead and put the Pirates into a tough spot. 

The Pirates finally got a second out, but a brutal error at third base brought in two more runs. 

With the Pirates’ offense breaking out in the eighth, the comeback didn’t seem impossible, but it was definitely going to be hard as they were now chasing three to tie and four to win despite leading by two just minutes earlier. 

The odds of a comeback quickly diminished as the Mavericks got two quick outs on hard-hit balls right to defenders. 

Andrew Sanchez barreled a third consecutive hard hit, but this one found the outfield grass in left. Ashton Romero came up next and hit a solid line drive into center field. 

The tying run was now at the plate, but there was still a lot of work to be done, and there was no margin for error with two outs. Rocco Reagan hit a groundball in the 5-6 hole immediately appearing to be a close play. Luckily for the Pirates, the shortstop overthrew the first baseman and the ball went into right field allowing Sanchez and Romero to score, and Regan to get all the way to third base. 

Jordan Viramontes just needed a single to tie the game, and he did exactly that, scalding a line drive into center. Tallakson hit a single of his own to advance Viramontes into scoring position. 

Roman Cruz came to the plate with a fantastic opportunity to finish the incredible two-out rally and walk off the game. Cruz shot the ball into left field with authority and Viramontes came into home plate, with both immediately being mobbed by excited teammates. 

In the end, six consecutive reached safely and four scored, all with two outs. 

The Pirates will be back at Mt. SAC again tomorrow to see if they can continue their magic.

On Saturday evening, the Inland Valley Pirates dominated the Colton Nighthawks at Bonita High School in a non-conference game. 

The Pirates have beaten the Nighthawks twice already this season, 16-7 and 13-6 in two CPCL matchups. 

This addition of the Nighthawks Pirates matchup would be the widest margin between the two teams. 

The Pirates offense teed off on Nightawks’ pitching from the start, scoring three runs in the first inning and then scoring three more in the second. 

In the third inning, the Pirates doubled their score by driving six runners home. 

The Nighthawks held the Pirates scoreless in the fourth, but that would be the only time they were able to achieve that throughout the game. 

From the fifth inning on, the Pirates shockingly added another nine runs, scoring 21 in total. 

Pirates’ pitching was also solid, only giving up three earned runs and four total runs. 

Bobby Mahoney and Jackson Banuelos both pitched two scoreless innings for the Pirates. Andrew Sanchez finished the game off, pitching three innings and only allowing one earned run. 

Esteban Olozaba and Cole Howarth led the Pirates in hits, with three each. Howard scored four times, and Ashton Romero scored three times. 

Olazaba hit an impressive home run down the left field line to drive in three of his six RBIs. 

Jarrett Kozma also hit a big two-run home run for his second of the season. Kozma was second on the team in RBIs with four. 

Though the game was not a CPCL game, it was certainly a statement win for the Pirates after only scoring two runs against the Bucs in their last contest. 

Outside of their loss to the Bucs, the Pirates’ offense has looked incredible all year.