The Blue Earth Pirates got a win in one of their last regular season games for the 2009 season.

The Pirates downed the Minnesota Lake Royals 4-1 in a game played in Blue Earth on Saturday, July 18.

After falling behind 1-0 to the Royals, the Pirates answered with three runs of their own in the fifth inning. They notched an insurance run in the ninth inning to get the 4-1 victory.

The fast-paced game featured two pitchers who didn’t waste much time between pitches.

Lee Hodges went all the way for the Pirates, giving up the single run on five hits. He also struck out 10 of the Royals batters he faced and didn’t walk a single one.

Royals pitcher Brian Welch struck out five Pirate batters and walked four of them.

The Pirates got seven hits from seven different players. All were singles, except for a double from Hodges in the second inning. He was 1 for 3 at the plate.

Going 1 for 4 were T. J. Schmidtke, Daniel Woodall, Justin Schaible, Cody Sukalski and Trent Sonnicksen. Going 1 for 5 at the plate was Todd Rasmussen.

The Pirates entered League Playoffs this past weekend, July 25 and 26. They played at home both days, but due to the county fair being held, the two games were played in Winnebago.

This week the Pirates travel to Austin on Wednesday for their final game of the regular season, scheduled to start at 7:30 p.m.

After that, they go back into League Playoffs on Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 1 and 2.

Beginning Saturday and Sunday, Aug. 8 and 9, the team starts Region Playoffs. They continue through Aug. 16. State Playoffs begin on Aug. 20.