Pittsburg Pirates fall on walk-off single in 7th inning

On Thursday, the Pittsburg Pirates were able to do something that they were not able to do when they opened play in the Premier Baseball Incoming Freshman tournament the day before.
Hit the ball.
In both games Wednesday, the Pirates managed a total of five hits but, against the Austin (Texas) Wings Black, on Thursday, Pittsburg collected six hits. However, a walk-off single in the bottom of the seventh from Nate Havwell gave Wings Black a 7-6 win over the Pirates at JayCee Ballpark.
“Up and down the lineup, we talked about being more aggressive,” said Pirates coach Gary Grimaldi. “We did hit the ball much better today.”
The Pirates were, however, able to come out and swing the bats as Matt Standlee scored the first run of the game after VJ Piccini reached on an error by Austin starting pitcher Pat Carter.
Wngs Black countered with a run in the bottom of the first, but the Pirates cranked out three runs in the third after Bryan Wade and Jay Roderique scored on a throwing error and Nate Grimaldi scored on a sacrifice fly from Piccini.
But, again, Austin countered with three runs in the bottom of the inning to keep the game tied.
Austin grabbed the lead in the bottom of the fifth when two runs scored on a Pittsburg throwing error.
However, just when it seemed that momentum shifted to Wings Black, the Pirates made a run in the top of the sixth when Standlee led off with a single and scored on a Brett Macary RBI double to right field.
Blake Vail followed with an RBI double down the left-field line to send Macary home with the tying run.
“I thought that Brett’s (Macary) double was big and when Vail followed up I thought it could be a big inning,” Gary Grimaldi said.
Pittsburg, however, left Vail stranded at third to end the inning.
That is when the Pirates’ defense took over.
In the bottom of the inning, with the bases loaded Wings Black’s Will Smith grounded out to Vail at third who tagged out Austin Kufvovich at third and threw out Smith at first for a double play.
“We threw a runner out at the plate, turned a double play and made a great grab in center field,” Gary Grimaldi said. “Those are the things that you have to do against good teams.”
But, Wings Black responded when Logan Kinder scored the winning run in the bottom of the inning after Havwell hit a walk-off single.
“That team battled us and they really made some great plays,” said Wings Black coach Wylie Campbell.

Matthew Clark can be reached at matthew.clark@morningsun.net or at 620-231-2600, Ext. 140. Follow Morning Sun sports at twitter.com/mssports.

Premier Baseball Incoming Freshman tournament
Thursday, July 3, 2009
at JayCee Ballpark
Austin (Texas) Wings Black 7, Pittsburg Pirates 6
Pittsburg    103 002 0 — 6 6 2
Austin    103 020 1 — 7 8 3
Christian Cedeno, VJ Piccini (5) and Brett Macary. Pat Carter, Jason Chapman (6) and Blake Braun. WP — Chapman. LP — Piccini. LOB — Pittsburg 5, Austin 6. DP — Pittsburg 1. E — Matt Standlee, Blake Vail; Carter, Nate Havwell, Zack Suarez. 2B — Macary, Vail; Carter.