PIRATES CAGE THE BOBCATS

[wordman]

On a day when it appeared that rain would wash out another ballgame in southeast Texas, the sun suddenly appeared and the baseball gods smiled once more on District 24-1A baseball.  Blayne Shook took the mound for the Pirates in his second home start of the season. After hitting the leadoff batter and an error on Pirates third baseman Tanner Hollier, the Bobcats threatened to score early with runners on first and third and just one down but Hollier redeemed himself on the very next play turning a routine popup into an inning ending double play.  The Pirates wasted no time scoring in their half of the first inning. Senior John Gossett led off with a double down the left field line and one batter later scored on a sharp single to centerfield by first baseman George Whittaker.  It was a lead the Pirates would never give up.  The Pirates tacked on another tally in the second inning when Senior Alex Stark drove a Bobcat offering  into the right centerfield gap for a triple and then scored on a throwing error.  The Pirates knocked out the Bobcat starter in the 3rd sending 11 batters to the dish and plating seven of them building an 9 - 0 lead.  In the top of the 4th, though, the Pirates got both sloppy and generous  handing the Bobcats 5 runs on only 3 hits while committing 2 errors, a poor fielding decision with 2 outs and a wild pitch.  Spurger reclaimed 2 of those runs in the their half of the 4th inning with timely hitting and the aggressive base running of starting catcher Jonathon Hutto who scored from second  on a routine ground out to finish the Pirate scoring and then it was all Blayne Shook.  Shook and his slow looping curveball retired 9 of the last 10 batters he faced.  His complete game 9 strikeouts, 0 walk performance lifted the Spurger Pirates district record to 4 – 3 while Hull Daisetta fell to 3-4 in district play.