2018 Desert Classic: 45+ Mountain
Utah Pirates 11, Arizona Angels 9
Submitted by Randy Miles, Pirates manager
After falling behind 3-0 in the first inning, the Pirates scored the next 10 runs from the second to sixth innings to take a 10-3 lead, then barely hung on to hold off the Angels11-9. The Angels scored three runs in the ninth and had the tying run at the plate. #25 Garvey hit a ground ball that bounced off Pirates closer Vic Valdez over to shortstop Brent Oldroyd who made a strong throw that barely beat out the runner to end the game.
The Pirate star of the game was Patrick Littlefield who came in relief in the fourth inning and held the Angels to only three runs through five innings. He also had three RBI at the plate including a triple in the sixth that proved to be the game winning run. Chad Foster pitched the first three innings and gave up three runs while Vic Valdez closed the ninth and got the save holding off the Angel’s rally.
Hitting stars for the Pirates were: Patrick Littlefield 2-3, Triple, 3 RBI; Dave Carter 2-3, 1 RBI; Randy Miles 3-4, double, 1 RBI.
Hitting stars for the Angels were:#22 Mark 3-5 Double, #28 Chip 3-5 with two doubles, #9 Doug3-5 with two doubles. The Angels swung the bat well with a lot of power and hit a lot of deep fly balls, fortunately many of them were caught.
The Pirates went 2-1 in pool play but took the third seed in their pool due to runs allowed and therefore got sent to the Mountain Division Consolation game. The Angels went 1-2 in pool play and made the Mountain Division consolation game due to giving up the least amount of runs between all 1-2 teams.
Pirate Head Coach Randy Miles stated: I am just glad Steve Sigler added the Mountain Division game so we got a chance to play another game. It’s tough going 2-1 and not making the National or American division playoffs, so we were excited to get another game in. We had one bad inning versus the SC Indians that prevented us from going 3-0 in pool play. Each game we played was really competitive, it was a great tourney.