PLEASANT HOPE - The Macks Creek Pirates and the Pleasant Hope Pirates played on Wednesday night in continuing action of the Wheatland Tournament. When all was said and done the visiting Pirates had taken one on the chin, falling 22-7 in four innings.
Hunter Lane doubled to right center with two outs in the top of the first but would remain stranded. Pleasant Hope responded with three of their own in the bottom half. Two errors and a triple helped contribute to the runs.
Macks Creek plated a single tally in the second. Colten Walter singled to left and then moved to third on Oscar Cortez's single to right. He would score on Tanner Smith's sacrifice fly to center to cut the deficit to 3-1. Carsen Strutz singled to put runners at first and second but a fly out to right and one to center ended the inning.
The home Pirates plated two more runs in the third to push their advantage to 5-1. After Macks Creek went 1-2-3 in the top of the third Pleasant Hope erupted for eight runs in the bottom of the inning. They sent 11 hitters to the plate and utilized three hits, two hit batsmen, two errors, and one walk to do their damage.
With the score at 13-1 and the top of the fourth coming up the Macks Creek Pirates plated six runs in their half of the inning. Colten Walter led off with a walk and stole second. Oscar Cortez and Tanner Smith then drew back-to-back walks to load the bases before Carsen Strutz collected an RBI-single to left field. Grant English and Cole Register drew a second set of back-to-back walks to bring in Smith and Cortez before Hunter Lane collected a two-RBI-single to center field with two outs, chasing in both Strutz and English. Register would move to third on the play. After a strike out Colten Walter would hit for the second time in the inning and reach on an error by the third baseman, allowing Cole to score. A strike out ended the threat and the visiting Pirates' scoring.
Pleasant Hope sent 14 hitters to the plate in the bottom of the fourth and scored nine runs to end the game via the 15-run rule. They did not have a hit in the inning.
"We kinda took one on the chin tonight," said Macks Creek Pirates' Coach Jason Trusty, "we struggled to throw the ball around the plate consistently and when we did we had trouble fielding the ball behind out pitchers."
The Pirates pitching staff issued eight walks and hit nine batters in the contest. Tanner Smith (1-1) worked the first two-and-a-third innings, allowing 12 runs, three earned, on five hits whiles striking out one, walking one, and hitting four batters. Zane Whitworth worked the next one-and-two-thirds innings, being touched for eight runs, two earned, on no hits while striking out one, walking six, and hitting three batters. Trever Smith made his pitching debut and worked against six batters. He allowed two unearned runs on one walk and two hit batters.
Offensively Hunter Lane collected two doubles and a single in three trips to the plate. He also had two RBI's. Carsen Strutz also collected two hits, both singles, in his two trips to the plate. He scored once and had an RBI. Colten Walter singled, walked, reached on an error, and scored two runs while Oscar Cortez singled, scored once, and walked. Cole Register walked, had an RBI, and scored, Tanner Smith had a sacrifice fly RBI, a run scored, and a walk, Grant English collected an RBI on a walk and scored a run.
Macks Creek falls to 4-2 with the loss. They will conclude play in the Wheatland Tournament on Friday. They will travel to Skyline to take on the sixth ranked team in Class 1, the Lakeland Vikings, at 6:30 p.m.
VARSITY BOX SCORE
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | R | H | E |
MC | 0 | 1 | 6 | 0 | 7 | 7 | 9 |
PH | 3 | 2 | 8 | 9 | 22 | 5 | 1 |