Chaps down Pilots 6-5 in season opener at Pilot Field
February 02, 2006
Shreveport, LA---Two of the NAIA’s Top 20 teams squared off against each other Thursday in the No. 9 Lubbock Christian University Chaps and the No. 14 LSUS Pilots. The two teams battled through a nine inning contest that saw the Chaps come out on top with a 6-5 win, spoiling the Pilots season and home opener.
The Chaps struck first with two runs in the first inning off Pilots starter Kevin Jewell. Jon Dover won an eight pitch at bat battle with a single to shallow left field and would later score on a Justin Sundlie double that blooped between Pilot outfielders Colin Moro and Tyler Williams for the first run of the ball game. Lundlie promptly stole third and advanced home when Pilot catcher Brent Lavallee made an errant throw that found its way down the left field line.
With one out in the top of the fourth, Zach Barnard delivered the Chaps third run via a solo-blast over the right field wall for his first homerun of the season making the score
3-0.
The Pilot offense finally put a run across in the bottom of the 6th inning of Chaps starter Raymond Pelton after back-to-back triples by Williams and Steffan Primeaux. Primeaux would later score when Moro drove a two out double into the left-center field gap cutting the Chaps lead to 3-2. Pelton completed 5.1/3 innings allowing two runs on six hits while collecting six strikeouts.
The Chaps answered with two runs f there own in the top of the 7th when with two outs and the bases loaded, Lance Bina hit a ground ball directly at Pilots second baseman Dustin Bissonnette that took an untimely hop of the infield dirt and ricocheted to the left of Bissonnette allowing two runners to score giving the Chaps a 5-2 lead.
In the bottom half of the 7th, Nick Pauza walked pinch hitter Scott Talley and with two outs hit Williams placing runners at the corners. With the count 2-0 on clean-up hitter, Primeaux delivered a three-run homerun over the left field wall which tied the score at 5-5.
Michael Harkins led off the top of the 8th with a ground ball that was headed down the line but was collected by the Pilots diving third baseman Bryan Cooksey who’s thrown was just off target allowing Harkins to reach safely. Kris Marks quickly relieved Josh Wheat (0-1) who was tagged with the loss after throwing just two pitches. Marks then threw away a pickoff attempt to first allowing Harkins to advance to third with no out.
Marks struck out Barnard and then intentionally walked Emmanuel Paula and was then forced to face Armando Dominguez.
Dominguez delivered a ground ball double that stayed just inside the third base bag allowing Harkins to score and runners advanced to second and third with just one out. Marks escaped the inning allowing just one run after getting Rolando Fajardo to fly out to shallow left and followed by getting Blandon Hancock to groundout.
PJ Trevino retired in the Pilots in order in the bottom of the 8th which set the stage for David Wasylak to come in and close out the contest. Quenton Shamsabody delivered a shot to deep right-center field that was caught at the wall denying a late Pilot rally. Wasylak completed the inning retiring the Pilots in order to pick up his first save of the year and preserved a 6-5 win for the Chaps.
The two teams will square off again tomorrow night at Pilot Field with the first pitch scheduled for 6:30pm, weather permitting.
