×
×
homepage logo

Pirates now 15-5, heading into league tournament

By Staff | Jul 23, 2017

The Blue Earth Pirates (15-5) appear to be in great shape heading into league tournament play as they have collected wins in two of their last three ballgames. Blue Earth’s last win happened to be an 11-2 laugher over the Morristown Morries on July 15. This was the second time that the Pirates have beaten the Morries on the year.

Saints 11, Pirates 9

Blue Earth’s ballgame against the Saints of St. Peter yielded a much different result. Despite an offensive outburst that produced nine runs, the Pirates were on the short end of their July 14 road contest.

Pirates 3, Spiders 2

In their most hotly contested ballgame in nearly a month, the Pirates squeaked by the Cleveland Spiders on July 13 at the Faribault County Fairgrounds. This game was originally scheduled for June 28, but was rained out.

Big right hander Garrett Anderson went the distance for the Pirates, earning a complete game victory in just 111 pitches. In the process, Anderson allowed only one earned run and one walk while striking out a whopping 13 batters.

Whether by called third strike, or by the swinging variety, Anderson’s execution was dominant throughout the game. The Blue Earth native had Cleveland batters guessing the entire game, varying up his pitch location and selection.

Anderson utilized his electric fastball that consistently hit different spots of the strike zone along with deceptive movement on his offspeed pitches. Spider hitters were routinely sent back to the visitor’s dugout with more questions than answers.

Anderson began the game by striking out the side in the first inning; a harbinger of things to come. In addition to his mastery on the mound, Anderson also smashed an RBI double to left center in the second inning which gave Blue Earth the first run of the game.

Later in the inning, Anderson was able to score after Pirates’ shortstop T.J. Schmidke rang up an RBI single with two out.

The sixth inning saw Blue Earth score their third run of the game thanks in large part to three Cleveland errors in the frame.

Pitching in the seventh and eighth innings, Anderson needed every bit of his trademark composure to wiggle out of trouble. In the seventh, Cleveland’s leadoff hitter reached third base by virtue of two Pirate fielding errors in the same sequence. Once that runner scored on an RBI groundout, the Spiders rallied for three consecutive hits.

The score was 3-2 in favor of Blue Earth, but there were two runners aboard with only one out. Facing a full count against the dangerous Brennan Corbett, Anderson reared back into his bag of tricks and came up with a clutch strikeout. Eric Westphal met the same fate on the very next at bat as a swing and a miss on a knee high fastball ended the Cleveland threat.

The eighth inning provided even more dramatics as Anderson pitched his way out of a bases loaded jam with only one out. A hard hit liner to third base and a lazy popup to first base helped to keep any Spider base runners from crossing home plate.

Blue Earth’s next game took place against the Wells Wildcats on July 22. This was the first game of their league tournament schedule. Results from this game will be available in the next edition of the Faribault County Register.