The Carney Pirates were formed this year for the purpose of providing talented baseball players the opportunity to prepare for the next level of competition. Mark down last night’s 12-1 defeat as a valuable lesson toward that goal. The game started off encouraging enough with Reed Bromley and Foster Dunigan making excellent defensive plays in the top of first. Momentum continued into the bottom of the first with Dunigan leading off with a single, advancing to third on a George Piccirilli single and scoring on Matt Snyder’s base hit. The Pirates put together another solid defensive inning in the second, turning a sharply executed double play to end the inning. The game was tied 1-1 at the end of three and then the dam burst.  The Senators demonstrated their  rankings as a top national college summer team were well deserved, playing heads up baseball, taking advantage of any Pirates’ lack of focus, combining it with excellent clutch hitting. Twice, the Pirates were caught off guard by delayed steals, one even on a first and third throw down, soon the game got out of hand. Even though the Senators went to station to station baseball, they still exhibited aggressive next base mentality, getting an excellent jump on a wild pitch with a 9-1 lead and scoring. This is the same play we have missed in several games, due to not looking for it. The run scored was not impressive because it was meaningful to the game, but because it is the way the game is supposed to be played. Pirates made excellent plays of their own, hitting the cutoff and nailing trail runners, going deep into the hole and executing a superb rundown, and making fine running catches, but just as many times, throws were made to the wrong base, balls were not properly tracked, and players did not effectively communicate with each other or cover their defensive responsibility. The next level, as shown tonight, dictates that focused baseball is reguired more than 50% of the time. This has been the message from the coaching staff since the first game. Hopefully, seeing the difference of both approaches is beneficial to the development of players who now realize that stuff they could get away with in high school just because they were superior athletes, vanishes immediately upon entering the college level of competition. The fact that several effective plays and some crisp closeout pitching occurred after being ten runs down is encouraging, and demonstrates the potential if the proper combination of effort and concentration is provided. As shown Thursday night, reaching that next level of play is a far more attractive outcome than the result occurring when focus is lost for even a few plays. The good news is that the Pirates have an opportunity in the season finale to apply their education and finish out with some excellent baseball.