Pacific Coast Baseball “Sweet 16” Update – The Pilots faced a huge challenge today at 8:30am against the SoCal Bombers Red and 11:30am against the SoCal Bombers Black and came away with two hard fought victories. Game one began as a pitchers duel with the Pilots Chase Sandman (Mountain Ridge – 2016) throwing 5.1 strong innings, striking out 6 and only giving up 4 hits. Sandman was relieved in the top of the sixth by Austin Shumaker (Chandler – 2015) who recorded the last five outs by striking out one and not allowing any hits. On the offensive side of the game, the Pilots got ahead in the 2nd inning, when Tucker Gilbertson (Prescott -2015) singled to left, moved to second on JJ Guadagno’s sacrifice, then to third on a ball in the dirt and scored on a passed ball to put the Pilots up 1-0. After the Bombers took the lead 2-1 in the top half of the fourth, the Pilots answered back with two of their own to take the lead back at 3-2. Cameron Cannon (Mountain Ridge – 2016) led the inning off with a triple and scored on Guadagno’s RBI double. Guadagno was plated on Jake Peloquin’s (Basha – 2015) infield single. In the fifth, the Pilots added another run when Hayden Durkiewicz (Chandler – 2015) singled, moved to second on Shumaker’s walk and both runners moved up 90 feet when Jared McDonald (Millennium – 2015) drilled a fly ball to center field. Michael Dyer (Mountain Ridge – 2015) then singled to score Durkiewicz to put the Pilots up 4-2 heading into the sixth. After another Bomber run made it 4-3, Pilots still in front - the Pilots were able to add two more run all with two outs. Peloquin worked a great at bat into a walk and Austin Nichols (Queen Creek – 2016) delivered a single to right to set up Durkiewicz’s 2 RBI double to put the Pilots up for good and a 6-3 victory. In game two, the Pilots jumped on top 2-0 in the bottom of the first (again with two outs) when Justin Revels (Mountain Ridge – 2015) walked and Dyer doubled to move Revels to third. A fielding error by the Bombers scored the two runs to give the Pilots the lead. With starting pitcher Gilbertson on the hill the Pilots ran into some trouble as the Bombers tacked on four in the second – and the Pilots found themselves down again 4-2 heading in the bottom of the second. The Pilots couldn’t really muster any offense until the bottom of the fourth when Dyer led off with a walk, Cannon singled and Shumaker coaxed out a walk to load the bases that set the stage for Guadagno’s bases clearing double to get the Pilots back in front and for good, 5-4. The Pilots added a run in the bottom of the sixth when Nichols drove home Shumaker to make it 6-4. The story of the game, however, may have Tanner Fallon (Valley Vista – 2016) who came in to start the third inning while the Pilots were down 4-2. He threw the next five innings, only gave up one hit, walked just one and struck out three. In his first three innings of work he set all nine down in order. In the five innings, Fallon faced 16 batters to record the final 15 outs. The Pilots, now 3-0 for this tournament, will wait out to see where they are seeded as they enter into day three (Saturday) of the tournament. Watch here for information.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 22:24:07 +0000