The Pirates continued their winning streak with an impressive come from behind victory with contributions from numerous players topping the DC Grays 8-6. Pat Somers exhibited exactly the performance discussed in the World Series article (click here or take a look below if you haven’t had a chance to skim it yet) with a gutsy three inning outing that kept his team in the game, even though falling behind 3-0. The key was that Somers hung tough even after having several plays not go his way which would have gotten him out of innings. He battled on and kept the score at 3-0 instead of five or six. The way this team can hit, it is vital that pitchers throw every pitch with a purpose, because this offense can bring us back over time as it sure enough did tonight.

Once again the hitting performers were scattered throughout the lineup. Ian MacGeorge, continues his effective leadoff hitting style and has become a bona fide CGL All Star candidate, setting the stage for some of the best clutch hitters in the league, tonight it was George Piccirilli, Shane Halley, Reed Bromley, who continues his pounding of the ball that started in March, and Mike Snyder who launched what would be the winning margin three run bomb OVER the bleachers on his birthday. Matt Crouse joined us for the first time, lining a rope to center for a single. Chris Yates threw three effective innings demonstrating excellent potential to take us deep into a game if necessary and Mike Mitchell finished off the win with very successful mixing of his offspeed and fastball (overpowering several hitters) as well as good positioning of his pitches. The team showed signs of being verbally aggressive, one example was fellow birthday player Matt Snyder telling Mitchell to step off when the runner showed signs of taking off with too large of a jump.

All cylinders of the Pirate organization were running smoothly last night; the coaching staff was on the top of their game with timely bunts and player rotation; the pressbox was performing well with The Voice of the Pirates, Tom McCormick providing clear, concise announcing and a smooth self-mixed musical soundtrack; Scorekeeper and statistician Sherri McMenamin once again provided yeoman’s duty setting up the concessions, keeping score and tallying statistics, she is ever so close to posting in a cumulative fashion our stats; Ryan Fischer, who arranged the scoreboard operator (his brother Andy) and put together the highly personable snack bar team and of course The Webmeister himself, Eddie Sutton donating his time to take the enjoyable pictures you see over to the side. The Clark Griffith League uses Eddie’s work for over 50% of their web photos and we’re thrilled to have him help us. Our website has received visits from over 40 states (many college towns) Canada, Switzerland and Brazil. Several CGL officials commented on what a wonderful evening of baseball it was, with all of the services provided by the Carney Pirates team and the guys wrapped it up with a solid victory commensurate with their talent and commitment. The next game is Thursday 5:30pm at Westfield where the sartorially splendid Carney Pirates break out their black jerseys for the first time, a show you won’t want to miss, see you there.

We’ve Got Pics!

Click here to see a gallery of photos in our Flickr.com account from the June 17 contest.