By DAVE BELCHER
Moapa Valley Progress
Its been a fabulous pre-season thus far for the Moapa Valley High School Baseball team. The Pirates have worked their way to an 7-2 overall record headed into spring break. This season the only two losses have come against Utah schools in the Hurricane tournament the first week of the season.
Last week the Pirates played twice and came away with two wins.
First the team travelled to Mojave where they dismantled the Rattlers with a 11-4 win. The Pirates started the game with a single run in the first inning. They held that lead until the top of the third inning when they added another two runs for a 3-0 lead.
Mojave got on the board with a single run in the bottom of the third cutting the Pirate lead to 3-1.
Moapa Valley continued to add runs in the fourth, scoring four times for a 7-1 lead. Chase Guessman hit a triple, one of two hits in the game to help lead the Pirates.
Mojave kept fighting though as they scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning, cutting the Pirate lead again to three runs headed into the top of the sixth.
The Pirates would finish the game with two runs in the both sixth and seventh innings for the win.
Daxton Longman pitched the complete game allowing just seven hits and the four runs.
The second game of the week was a home win for the Pirates 6-2 against the Western Warriors. Western scored twice in the top of the first inning.
Mark Gastelum hit a two-run single scoring the Warriors’ only runs of the game.
When the Pirates got to the plate in the bottom of the first they exploded for six runs, the only runs of the game for Moapa Valley. Longman and Guessman each drove in an RBI with hits . After that Gavin Hadley drove in two RBI’s helping the Pirates to the win.
The six-run first was all the Pirates would need. Chase Hadley pitched seven innings striking out seven and allowing just four hits.
