Pirates shut down Oilers, 4-0

Friday, July 18, 2008
DAWSON SPRINGS — Starting pitcher Justin Long turned in a gem on the mound Thursday night to pace the Tradewater Pirates to a 4-0 win against the second-place Owensboro Oilers at Riverside Park.

Long threw a complete-game shutout and struck out 11 batters as he beared down to assert his dominance over the latter innings. The right-hander surrendered just three hits and retired 16 consecutive Oiler batters to end the game.

After the game, Long admitted his comfort level improves as the game progresses.

“I’ve always been a freak of nature like that,” he said. “I don’t get loosened up until the fifth or sixth inning. I always throw harder in the later innings than I do early on. I don’t know why that is. It’s unexplainable, but that’s how it is.”

In the first inning, however, it did not appear Long would have such a successful evening. After securing the first out of the game, Long allowed the next three batters on to load the bases on an error, single, and hit batter. Long recovered though to strike out Haskel Fink and get out of the jam on a ground out.

Tradewater’s offense did not take long to provide Long with run support, scoring two runs in the bottom of the second inning.

“It was just whether or not we hit for (Long) and we hit for him tonight when we had to and played solid defense,” Tradewater coach Kurt Elbin said. “It was just a complete performance.”

First baseman Richard Atwood started things off with a double to left field. A sacrifice bunt from Matt Kulbacki advanced Atwood to third base.

Logan Bawcom then reached after he was hit by a pitch, and Jason Cramer singled Atwood in for a 1-0 lead. The Pirates scored another run when an errant throw on a double-play attempt that allowed Bawcom to come home.

Both teams struggled to put much together during the middle innings, but it was Tradewater that pushed through to put a couple more runs on the scoreboard. Tradewater did not record a single hit between the second and seventh innings but scored single runs in both the seventh and eighth innings to give Long more breathing room on the mound.

Centerfielder Sean Mahley manufactured his own run in the seventh inning.

Mahley led off with a triple to right field and on the next pitch he scampered home on a wild pitch.

During the eighth inning, Cramer brought home the game’s final run when he doubled home Bawcom, who reached on a fielder’s choice. Cramer’s shot fell just feet short of the left field fence.
Although the Pirates struggled in the middle innings, Elbin said his team has been improving offensively as the season winds down.

“We’re just trying to hit on all cylinders at the right time and I think we’re starting to do that,” he said.

Long took the mound again in the ninth to finish his streak, retiring the side in order for the win.
Long, who struck out increasingly more batters as the night wore on said he has been trying to use more pitches in his repertoire.

“We’ve been working on a slider from a submarine angle,” Long said. “That was what was bringing them off their front foot, and also I was throwing a split-finger change that was keeping them out there, and it was all working for me tonight.”

With the win the Tradewater moves to 30-13 and increases its lead over Owensboro. The two teams will be back in action 7 p.m. today in the second of a three-game series.

During Wednesday’s second half of a day-night doubleheader, pitcher Sean Mahley got the win in a 3-1 game after he tossed a complete game to finish a series sweep of the Farmington Firebirds.

Mahley’s complete game came after game one starter Kevin Belk also threw a complete game. In the nightcap, Mahley struck out nine batters and limited Farmington to just five hits.

Offensively, Nate Wright led the way with a 2-for-3 day with one RBI. Wright drove in the game’s first run in the first inning on a one-out double that scored Kulbacki.

Two batters later, Cramer knocked in a run with a RBI single, and the Pirates took a 2-0 lead after their first at-bat.

Because the second game was a makeup, the Firebirds batted as the home team in the bottom half of the first and cut the deficit to 2-1.

Dallas Williams tripled to begin the inning for Farmington, and Juan Favela brought him home on a sacrifice fly, the only run Mahley allowed.

In the sixth inning, Payne Spence added an insurance run for the Pirates when he hit a sacrifice fly that allowed Long to score, making it a 3-1 game.