Pirates Picking Up Steam

By Clint Cox

After battling rough seas for much of the season, the Sneads Pirates baseball squad seems to have the wind behind their sails recently. The Pirates have reeled off three straight wins, their longest winning streak of the 2010 campaign.

After wins last week against Graceville and Blountstown, the Pirates declawed the Bearcats of Bainbridge on Tuesday night 14-6. Bainbridge, coached by former Marianna High coach Scott Miller, jumped out to an early 2-0 lead but the Pirates fired right back in big fashion during their first at bat. Marcus Beauchamp stroked a RBI single to score Bubba Carpenter. Beauchamp later scored on a past ball to tie the game at 2-2. Pirate pitcher John Locke drew a walk and Austin Bucceri came in as a courtesy runner. The Pirates managed to load the bases and then took the lead when Ron Brown was hit by a pitch to score Bucceri. Aaron Green’s sacrifice fly scored Devin Hayes to make it a 4-2 lead for the Pirates. Taylor Dunham stepped up with a big two RBI singled to score T.J. Granger and Brown. The Pirates had batted around and Carpenter came up with a RBI double to score Dunham for the final run of the inning.

Sneads led 7-2 after one inning and added another run in the second when Bucceri, who again was a courtesy runner for Locke, came home to score on a wild pitch. Bainbridge countered in the third inning with three runs to cut the Pirate lead to 8-5. Sneads used a big bottom of the fourth inning however to pull away. It started with a triple from Locke and Bucceri coming in to run for him. Bucceri scored on a balk to make it a 9-5 lead. Hayes and Granger had reached base and then came home to score on a two out single off the bat of Brown. Garrett Harris came in as a courtesy runner for Brown, the Pirate’s catcher, and scored on a RBI triple by Aaron Green. The Pirates increased their lead to 13-5 when Green came home on a Bearcat wild pitch. Both teams added another run down the stretch for Sneads it was a big win over the much larger school from Georgia. The Pirates will try to make it four in a row when they host Cottondale on Thursday night.