It took a month and a half for the Pirates to muster up one of their patented come-from-behind, trademark victories. The victim this time was the Newport Knights and the place was Safeco Field as Highline overcame a 9-1 deficit for a 10-9, eight inning win. Newport, from the Kingco 4A League, put up a four spot in the top of the first, three of which were unearned. The Knights added another run in the third to go up 5-0. Highline didn't even have a base hit until the fourth when Logan Brickell finally broke the ice. Newport added two more in the top of the fifth cruising to a 7-0 lead. The Pirates scored their first run in the bottom of the fifth on a Joe Young basehit, two walks and Ryan Brett's sacrifice fly making the score 7-1. Newport responded with four hits and two more runs in the top of the sixth which produced an eight run deficit for the Pirates to overcome. With one out in the bottom of the sixth, Logan came up with his second hit of the night to jump-start the Pirate offense. Jacob Wydick was hit by a pitch and James Hovland singled to load the bases. Freshman, Eric Anderson came up with a two RBI single in his first Varsity at bat. Nick Mead walked to reload the sacks and Ryan Brett blasted a triple off the wall in straight away centerfield at the 405' mark clearing the bases to make it 8-5. Ryan Lingle then singled, Jonny Locher tripled, Derick Lewis was hit by a pitch and Jonny scored on a wild pitch to tie the game at 9-9 after six innings. Lee Carson came on in relief in the top of the seventh and retired the side with two strikeouts and a ground out. Highline threatened in the bottom of the seventh but a muffed squeeze play sent the contest into extra innings. In the eighth, Newport took advantage of a double Pirate error to place a runner on third with one out. The runner tried to score on a wild pitch but Luke Werle hustled after the loose ball and was able to block the plate and apply the tag to squelch the Knight rally. In the bottom of the eighth, Brett led off with a walk, stole second and stole third. Jonny and Derick were intentionally walked bringing up Lee with the bases loaded and one out. A hard grounder to the right side found paydirt and the Pirates could celebrate their best comeback win of the year 10-9. Many players were instrumental in this win. Nick Mead struck out the side in the fifth. Ryan Lingle played errorless baseball in four different positions. Several Pirates came back from 0-2 counts to find a way to get on base. Ben Antush was super valuable as our bullpen catcher and our fans kept the enthusiasm going even when we were down by eight runs. The win keeps the Pirates perfect through our first three games at Safeco Field.
With four league games to play this coming week, Highline has no time to celebrate. The week starts Monday with a 3:30 game at Foster. Tuesday is the makeup game at home with Kennedy at 3:30. Wednesday we travel to Renton and Friday is the home field finale against Tyee at 7:00 PM.
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