The Mustang Rockies won their season opener in exciting fashion, edging out the Pirates 13 – 11. The teams swapped leads throughout the game, with the Rockies going ahead in the final inning, then holding the Pirates scoreless to win the game.
TOP 1ST: The first four Rockies reached base and scored in the first inning. Stephen Ellis knocked in Phillip Hrisak with the first run, then he, Grace White, and Jason Fuertes cored on wild pitches. Cameron Jones singled and stole second and third, but was tagged out at home by the Pirates’ pitcher Christopher Techman.
BOTTOM 1ST: In the bottom half of the inning the Rockies made two straight defensive plays. Centerfielder Cameron threw in to second-baseman Stephen to force Colin, then catcher Grace threw to third-baseman Drew Laiz, who tagged out Christopher Bilson. But then the Pirates scored five straight two-out runs to take the lead. Techman singled, Harrison Kossover and Tanner Pittard walked. Daniel Fulcher’s grounder to third drove in Harrison, then Chris Dollinger, Micah Sapp, and Carson Hopkins walked. Tanner, Daniel, and Chris all scored on passed balls.
TOP 2ND: Drew led off the second for the Rockies with a single to right, and he later scored on a passed ball. Then Micah, pitching for the Pirates, struck out the next three Rockies batters.
BOTTOM 2ND: The Pirates then retook the lead in the bottom of the inning. Chase Winans led off with a big hit that leftfielder Matthew Murphy got in quickly, holding Chase to a single. Cooper Hines struck out the next batter, before Christopher Bilson knocked in Chase with a grounder to first. Christopher Techman then hit a long triple to right-center. With two out Techman then scored on a crafty delayed steal of home, just before Harrison grounded out…Rockies shortstop Jason made a nice play, throwing to first-baseman Cameron for the third out.
TOP 3RD: In the third the Rockies rattled off four straight singles to score five runs. Again Phillip came home on Stephen’s hit, and Stephen scored on a wild pitch. Grace singled to center. Jason then beat out a grounder to short. When the throw sailed past the first-baseman Grace continued on to third, and Jason took off for second. The throw to second rolled past everyone to deep in the outfield, allowing both Grace and Jason to come all the way around and score. Next Cooper beat out a grounder to the second-baseman, stole second, and took third on a passed ball. When Daniel Luckett popped a fly the first-baseman caught, Cooper tagged up and scored the fifth run.
BOTTOM 3RD: Grace came on to pitch for the Rockies, and held the Pirates to two runs in both the third and fourth. Daniel Fulcher and Chris Dollinger led off the third with walks, and both scored on wild pitches. Then Grace settled down and struck out two of the next three. Chase then hit a grounder to Grace’s left. First-baseman Cameron moved over to field the ball, and expertly flipped to Grace covering the bag, to end the inning.
TOP 4TH: Cameron then led off the fourth, hitting a hard grounder past the first-baseman and right-fielder. The ball kept roller toward the fence, allowing Cameron to circle the bases for an inside-the-park home run. Drew then doubled and Tyler Hall singled, before Pirates pitcher Tanner Pittard struck out the next two batters to strand the runners and end the inning.
BOTTOM 4TH: Colin led off with a walk, stole second, and scored on Techman’s infield single. Harrison’s grounder to second advanced Techman to third, but Grace struck out her second batter of the inning. With two out Techman again stole home, just before Daniel popped out to Cooper at short.
TOP 5TH: Going into the final inning with the score tied, for a third time Phillip walked and Stephen singled, and again they scored. But Pirates’ pitcher Daniel struck out two of the next three batters.
BOTTOM 5TH: Phillip came on to pitch for the Rockies, and quickly struck out the first two batters. Then Carson rapped a line drive down the left-field line. In left Stephen quickly got the ball in, holding Carson to a double. Then Chase hit a slow roller in front of Grace at short. The only play was to hold Carson at second. Now the tying run was on first, and Colin stepped in representing the winning run. He hit a hard grounder to short, that looked like it may bounce through into the left-centerfield gap. But the grounder hit the baserunner…ending the exciting game in a curious fashion.
No comments:
Post a Comment