Trent Sonnicksen lays down a bunt for a base hit in the first inning. To see more photographs of this event, log on to http://cu.faribaultcountyregister.com

Defense in the form of a couple of key double plays helped the Blue Earth Pirates push their record to 14-0 as they defeated Morristown 6-4 in Blue Earth Wednesday night.

Morristown opened the game with a hit off Pirates’ starting pitcher Kane Malo, who was making his first start of the season.

That runner was eliminated when T. J. Schmidtke moved to his left to field a grounder by the No. 2 batter and stepped on second base before throwing to first to complete the double play.

Emptying the bases was important as the No. 3 batter hit a solo home run over the right field fence to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

The Pirates responded in their half of the first as they plated four runs on four hits and one error.

Center fielder Cody Sukalski got things started as he reached on an error as Morrristown’s center fielder could not hold on to Sukalski’s fly ball.

Trent Sonnicksen bunted for a single to put runners on first and third. Schmidtke responded with a double that plated both runners and put the Pirates up 2-1.

Following a pop out to the second baseman, Aaron Wendt came to the plate and stroked a double to left field to score Schmidtke and put the Pirates up 3-1.

A single by Justin Schaible put runners on first and third with one out. Pitcher Malo helped his cause as he hit a sacrifice fly that plated Wendt, giving the host team a 4-1 lead at the end of one inning.

The top of the second inning saw the visitors take advantage of a Pirates’ error to get their lead-off hitter on. Two consecutive hits resulted in a run and runners on second and third with no outs. The next batter hit a ground ball to first baseman Ryan Vereide who fired home to catcher Robert Perrizo, who tagged the runner coming from third for the first out. The visitors did plate another run on a ground out to second, but the Pirates escaped further damage as pitcher Malo induced an inning ending pop up to shortstop Schmidtke but Morristown had pulled within one run trailing 4-3. Cody Sukalski got one run back in the home half of the second inning as he drove a pitch over the fence in left-center field to make the score 5-3 at the end of two complete innings.

Each team added a run in the fifth inning.

Morristown scored when their lead off batter connected for a double and the next batter hit what looked to be a ground out to third baseman Schaible until the ball took a bad hop that sailed over his head for a hit that brought in the visitor’s fourth and final run of the evening.

The Pirates got their run when Daniel Woodal followed Schmidtke’s single with a double off the left field fence that brought Schmidtke all the way around for the run and put the lead back to two runs at 6-4.

Sukalski came on to pitch in the sixth inning and recorded 1-2-3 innings in both the sixth and seventh inning.

He ran into a little bit of trouble in the eighth inning as a walk, sacrifice bunt, and a bunt single put runners on first and third with one out.

The threat was eliminated on a double play when Sukalski struck out the batter and Woodal, who had taken over the catching duties, threw out the runner attempting to steal second base.

The line score for the evening showed Morristown scoring four runs on six hits, while committing three errors.

The host Pirates scored six runs on nine hits and committed one error.

Pirates 6 Royals 0

The Pirates traveled to Minnesota Lake on Friday, June 13, and came home with a 6-0 victory as Dominic Schultz, Lee Hodges, Cody Hyland, and Wendt combined to pitch the shut out while holding the Royals to 2 hits.

The Pirates recorded eight hits as six different players drove in runs for the victory.