Pirate nine struggle against Trojans, lose 6-0
Loss puts Payette at 4-4 on the season
By Matthew Neal
Argus Observer
Friday, March 21, 2008 11:53 AM PDT
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| Scott Ford | Argus Observer
The Payette Pirates could not catch a break Thursday, losing to Nampa Christian 6-0 in non-league play. Pictured above, Payette catcher Alex Mackey tries to frame a pitch to get the strike call, but the pitch was called a ball. Pirate pitcher Brad Pollock didn’t walk any Trojan hitters but gave up seven hits in the the loss. |
PAYETTE — The Payette Pirate baseball team lost 6-0 to the Nampa Christian Trojans Thursday in Payette in a non-league game and now stands at 4-4 on the season.
Nampa Christian put three runs up in the top of the first inning while the Pirates struggled to get anything going offensively during the remaining six and a half innings.
Brad Pollock had the wheel for the Pirates but gave up seven hits during the game.
After a three-run first inning for Nampa, Payette kept them from scoring again until the fifth inning when they put one run over the plate followed by two more in the sixth.
Payette’s troubles started and ended with stranded runners.
Just when the Pirates found a little momentum, they were shut down without those key clutch hits to score runs.
“They (Nampa Christian) were just more aggressive at the plate and got some infield singles and capitalized on them,” Pirate head baseball coach Tracy Bratcher said. “They didn’t hit Pollock real hard, we just made some errors.”
Bratcher’s biggest concern was the stranded runners.
“We left a lot of runners on base,” he said. “We loaded the bases then hit into double plays. We just didn’t get that big hit and it caught up to us. If we don’t tap clutch hits and get some runners in it’s tough to win.”
Pollock had seven strike outs on the game while Nampa Christian’s Ryan Vanderstatt had six strike outs and seven walks. Kacee Hirchert hit a double, and Brad Huddleston went 2-for-3, but the Pirates couldn’t make anything of it.
“Hopefully, with time, the guys will step up and have someone lead this team,” Bratcher said. “We have a couple of guys that are close to being that guy but today wasn’t our day, and that’s baseball, but hopefully we can take something from the game and get fired up and get after it next time.”
