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The Drew Central Pirates returned from the Spring Break Holiday to enter 8-3A Conference play on Tuesday, March 31, facing the Rison Wildcats at home.
Scheduled to return to the field on Monday, March 30, at Hampton in a non conference contest, however the scheduled contest would be cancelled with the Pirates returning on Tuesday.
Hunter Griffin would take the mound for the Pirates to start the contest.
Griffin would get the first Wildcat batter to fly out for the first out and would follow with consecutive strikeouts to end the inning.
After the lead off hitter for the Pirates grounded out, followed by a Pirate strikeout for the second out of the inning, Griffin would reach on a single to shortstop followed by a single by Jordan Jones down the first base line to put runners on first and second.
Rison’s pitcher would get the next Pirate batter to strike out to end the inning, stranding two Pirate runners.
Rison would get a single runner on the bags in the top of the second off a walk, but the Pirates would keep the Wildcats scoreless in the inning.
In the bottom half of the innig, the Wildcats would sit the Pirates down in order.
Rison would lead off with a walk to begin the top of the third inning with Griffin getting the next batter to flyout.
Griffin would pick off the Wildcat runner on first for the second out before striking out the batter for the third out of the inning.
Blayze Pevey would lead off the bottom of the inning for the Pirates with a single to center field, but after a strikeout, Pevey would be thrown out attempting to steal second followed by a fly out by Barylin Moore to end the inning.
Rison would lead off the top of the fourth with a double but Griffin would get the next three batters out in order to end the inning.
In the bottom of th4e fourth inning, Griffin would lead off the inning with a single to first base.
Jones would connect for a double on the next at bat to score Griffin for a 1-0 lead..
Mason Maggard would hit a single to score Jones to give the Pirates a 2-0 lead.
Rison would get a run back in the top of the fifth inning after getting a run on a wild pitch to cut the Pirate lead to 2-1.
Drew Central would leave a runner stranded in the bottom half of the inning with Griffin reaching base on a single.
Griffin would hold the Wildcats scoreless in the top of the sixth after allowing the first two batters to reach base on consecutive walks.
After a lead off strike out, Colton Reed would get on base for the Pirates with a single in the bottom of the sixth followed by Rison recording the second out of the inning on a strikeout.
Trent Burton would connect for a double to right field that would score Reed to increase the Pirate lead to 3-1 which would be the final score of the contest to give the Pirates their first conference win of the season.
WIth the win the Pirates improve to 4-3 on the season and 1-0 in conference.
Hunter Griffin would pitch the complete game allowing one hit in seven innings and one run, striking out nine and walking four.
The Pirates are scheduled to continue conference play on Thursday, April 2, travelling to Dumas with a 4:30 pm start.
