Pirates lose both games of doubleheader to Trumann

GOSNELL--The Gosnell Pirates suffered a huge blow to the 3-4A standings after dropping both games of a doubleheader to Trumann Tuesday night.

The Pirates (7-5, 3-3 3-4A) wasted strong outings from starting pitchers Blake Sullivan and Will Camp on their way to 2-1 and 5-4 losses to the Wildcats.

Sullivan allowed just one earned run on two hits while striking out seven over five innings in the 2-1 game one loss. Camp allowed two earned runs on five hits over five innings in a 5-4 loss after the Pirates opened with a 3-0 lead. Camp also pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Sullivan in game one while Taylor Jolly struck out five of the six batters he faced in relief of Camp in game two.

"I feel really bad for our pitchers tonight," said Pirate head coach Bret Jackson. "I really believe they pitched good enough to win these games. We just didn't back them up."

In game one, the Pirate offense scratched out just one run on four hits off of Wildcat starter Nathan Maxwell. Maxwell allowed few scoring opportunities as Pirate runners only reached scoring position two times in the entire game.

"We had just two really good hits the entire game," said Jackson. "I told the kids that we allowed one kid (Maxwell) to beat us. We didn't even get a chance to see what their defense could do because we kept popping the ball up. You can't win games hitting little pop ups."

Trumann scored an unearned run in the first before Gosnell tied it up with a run in the fourth. Brad Thomas led off with a double to right center field and Jake Westmoreland followed with an RBI single to left scoring pinch runner Andrew Scott, tying the game at 1-1. Trumann responded with a two-out run in the fifth and held on for the win. After giving up the back-to-back hits in the fourth, Maxwell settled down and retired 12 of the final 13 batters he faced to pick up the win. Westmoreland (2-3 with an RBI), Sullivan and Thomas led the Pirate offense.

GAME TWO

Trumann 5, Gosnell 4

Gosnell scored three runs in the bottom of the first but couldn't hold on to the lead in a 5-4 loss to Trumann in the nightcap of the 3-4A doubleheader.

Starting pitcher Will Camp and the Pirates cruised along for four innings with a 3-1 lead before the Wildcats scored four runs on just two in the top of the fifth. Trumann benefited from a couple of Gosnell fielding and throwing errors to take a 5-3 lead and held that lead into the bottom of the seventh.

Freshman Carlos Blackman made things interesting with a one-out home run over the left field fence in the seventh. Michael Miller reached on an error and ended up on third with two out but the Pirates couldn't get him home to tie the game.

"That fifth inning hurt us bad," said Jackson. "We booted a ball around and gave them (Trumann) life. I was disappointed with our bats tonight and I was extremely disappointed with our effort on defense. The game's on the line and we didn't put out the kind of effort to make a play to keep runs from scoring. That really bothered me. Sometimes you've got to do dirty work in order to win a ball game like that and that was something that our kids just weren't willing to do."

The Pirates head to Paragould this weekend in the Glen Sain Tournament and open against Blytheville in the first round.

"I told the kids, we're going to get better. We're going to go up to this tournament this weekend and try to win it for the second year in a row. But if we don't pick it up, we won't have much more baseball to play, that's for sure."

SOFTBALL

Gosnell's Christen Houwen fires a pitch against Trumann Tuesday night.

Trumann swept a doubleheader against the Gosnell Lady Pirates, winning game one, 11-4, and game two, 19-4. Gosnell dropped to 1-5 on the year and will take on Cave City at 4 p.m. next Tuesday, April 2.

afitzpatrick@blythevillecourier.com