Jonesboro snaps Pirates' 7-game win streak

GOSNELL--The Gosnell Pirates dropped a non-conference showdown against the Jonesboro Hurricane, 13-2, Thursday night.

The loss snapped a seven-game winning streak by the Pirates.

"We'd been playing real good there," said Pirate head coach Bret Jackson. "We didn't do what we had been doing. We didn't throw strikes, we booted the ball around and made errors in the field. When you play a good team, you can't do that."

The Pirates committed four errors and allowed six batters to reach via walk or hit batsmen.

The Pirate bats were making contact but not producing the runs they had been doing over their streak.

Jonesboro led 7-2 before breaking the game open with a three-run homer off the bat of Sam Rainwater with two outs in the sixth and another three-run shot by Reed Wingo in the seventh.

The pitching of combination of Aaron Fitts and Matthew Fitts allowed just two runs six hits over the seven innings.

Aaron Fitts retired the last seven Pirates in order to end the game.

"We ran into a real good ball club," said Jackson. "We hit the ball hard. They were a good defensive club and made some great plays on us. We shot ourselves in the foot by not throwing strikes early and making errors in the field."

The Pirates are still in contention to pick up a conference regular season title. With two losses, they are just one game behind league leading Valley View. The Pirates will host the first place Blazers on Tuesday, April 15 for a 3-4A double-header.

Before Tuesday's game, the Pirates head to Nettleton Friday night for a non-conference mathcup against the 5A-Raiders and then host Paragould Monday at Gosnell.

afitzpatrick@blythevillecourier.com @CN_AaronF