Chinooks get home sweep over Pilots
Tim Barto-Chinooks
Monday's 4:00 game against the Pilots was a make-up for the rained out opener last Wednesday, and the Chinooks pulled out their first win of the season . . . and did so without scoring a run. Brayden Adams, a right-handed junior out of Columbia International University, started on the hill and pitched five scoreless innings. After a Pilots' single to start the sixth, skipper Tim Cole brought in lefty Ben Sundell, who held the opposition scoreless for the sixth and seventh. Adams and Sundell were supported by strong defensive play, including two double plays and a runner thrown out at the plate by second baseman Oliver Degenhardt. Offensively, neither team was able to bring home a run, so at the end of regulation play (seven innings because doubleheader games are abbreviated from nine innings to seven) the score was 0-0. That's when the ABL sudden death policy went into effect. A half inning is played with a runner on first. If that runner scores, the offensive team wins. If the runner doesn't score before three outs are made then the defensive team wins. The Pilot runner stole second and moved over to third on a groundball to first baseman Jordan Jaffe; meaning the winning run was 90 feet away. Sundell struck out the next hitter and induced a flyball to center fielder Jayden Hill to end it. Final score remained zero to zero, but the Chinooks get the win.
Tim Barto-Chinooks
Troy Lopez got the start for the Chinooks for the second game of Monday's doubleheader. The Westmont University freshman pitched four solid innings, striking out six Pilot batters and giving up only one run. Peyton Neimann threw two innings of shutout ball, and Adyn Collins went one-two-three in the final seventh (this game, like the first, abbreviated to seven innings).Chinook pitchers struck out ten Pilot batters in those seven innings. The defensive gem of the night was a strike-'em-out-throw-'em-out double play on an attempted Pilot steal of second base in the sixth. Chinook hitters were making contact for five innings without much luck going their way, but in the sixth, things started falling into place as the Fish utilized two singles, two walks, a sacrifice, and a hit batsman to score four runs. The ice breaker was provided by catcher and University of Richmond sophomore, RJ Rickabough, whose single drove in two runs. Left fielder Brady Groves of Oberlin College reached base three times via a single, double, and base on balls to help the Chinooks sweep the doubleheader. Final score: Pilots 1, Chinooks 4.
