Cody Sukalski slides safely into second on a steal, beating the throw. To see more photographs of this event, log on to http://cu.faribaultcountyregister.com

Playoff action got underway for the Blue Earth Pirates last weekend as they won their first two games to move into the Region Playoffs. Their next game will be in Waterville at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Aug 2.

The Pirates played host to Wells and scored a 10-0 seven inning victory in the opening game last Saturday as they scored the only run they would need in the bottom of the first.

Cody Sukalski reached first on an error and advanced to second base on a wild pitch. Trent Sonnicksen hit a sacrifice fly to move Sukalski to third base and a ground out to second by T.J. Stallman brought Sukalski home with the Pirates’ first run.

Dan McLevish, the starting pitcher for Wells, cruised through the second inning before running into trouble in the bottom of the third.

Sukalski reached on a fielder’s choice and used a stolen base and a wild pitch to advance to third. Sonnicksen walked and stole second. Stallman hit a high pop fly that the Wells first baseman caught while falling backwards. Sukalski broke for home and beat the throw to make it a 2-0 ballgame.

With two outs it appeared that the visitors might get out of the inning without suffering too much damage but consecutive singles by Aaron Wendt, Justin Schaible, and Dominique Schultz brought in two more runs and left runners at the corners. A walk to Dan Franta loaded the bases and caused a pitching change as Chris Hanson took over on the mound for the visitors.

Robert Perrizo drew a four pitch walk to force in the fourth run of the inning and Ryan Vereide also drew a walk to bring home the fifth and final run of the inning.

The Pirates would add four more in the bottom of the fourth inning to complete their scoring.

Meanwhile on defense, the Pirates’ hurler Sukalski was being quite stingy as he took a no-hitter into the top of the 7th inning before surrendering two singles. He ended the day with eight strikeouts while allowing three walks with only one opposing runner making it as far as second base.

The final line showed the Pirates winning with 10 runs on eight hits while committing no errors while Wells scored no runs on two hits and they committed one error.

Pirates 8, Morristown 5

The Pirates hosted Morristown in their second playoff game held Sunday, July 20 and scored an 8-5 victory.

Blue Earth pounded out 13 hits and drew eight walks. Daniel Woodall had a four-hit game while Sukalski, Stallman, Schaible, and Sonnicksen tallied two hits each.

Aaron Wendt was on the mound for the Pirates and went nine innings striking out 13 batters. He gave up six hits and issued two walks and only two of Morristown’s five runs were earned.

The Pirates found themselves trailing 5-4 going into the bottom of the 8th inning before rallying for four runs to earn the victory.