Piratas steal win in bottom of the ninth

By Matt Hanlon

Wine Country Baseball.com

It was a dangerous situation the Sonoma Crushers thought they were out of. With two outs and runners on first and third in a tie game in the bottom of the ninth, pitcher Mike Simpson nearly picked off a sleeping Nolan Pearson with a surprise snap throw over to first.

A pitch later, Simpson tried again, hoping to catch Pearson off guard. But this time, it was the Crushers that got caught sleeping.

A second after Simpson turned and threw over to first, Nate Wall suddenly took off from third, sliding precariously wide of home plate as the throw came home. But Wall brushed the base with his hand just in time to beat the sweeping tag from catcher John Garcia, to steal a win from Sonoma in a heart-stopping 4-3 Piratas victory at Arnold Field on Wednesday night.

As the Piratas’ bench erupted, a stunned Crushers’ defense trickled slowly off the field amidst loud jeers towards the umpires coming from the stands. For Petaluma coach Dave Hunt, the win offered a perfect example of his team this season.

“We (knew that we) just had to do whatever it takes,” he said. “ We caught them sleeping. It was just smart baseball, smart base running… This is kind our kind of game. We haven’t blown anyone out all season, we’ve only had one high scoring game. We’re a scrappy team.”

Both teams saw complete game efforts from their starting pitchers. Mike Miller, who earned the win for Petaluma, allowed two earned runs on four hits with 14 strikeouts. Simpson was equally dominant, tossing 148 pitches through nine innings in the loss, allowing six hits while striking out 12.

Petaluma had to comeback from a one-run deficit late in the game, as they trailed heading into the eighth inning. But an RBI single to right field by T.J. Drotliff scored Miller to tie the game at three, setting the stage for the dramatic ninth inning.

The Crushers (4-4) led 2-1 for most of the game after taking the lead in the third inning. Sebastian Hernandez scored on a fielder’s choice by John Garcia, who later scored on a single by Simpson.  The Crushers added another run in the seventh when Josh Buhagiar scored on an error.

The Piratas (6-2) are no strangers to close games. Six of the Piratas’ eight games this season have been decided by fewer than three runs. For the scrappy Petaluma ballclub, this experience made a big difference in the tight situations at the end of the game.

“We knew they had some pitchers that throw strikes,” Miller said. “We knew it was going to be about execution. It came down to who wanted it more.”

(Photos coming soon)