Pintos use big third to get past Prairie Home

The California Pintos baseball team defeated the Prairie Home Panthers 6-3 on July. 7.

The Pintos capitalized on a big third inning, in which they scored five runs to pull ahead 6-1 in the game.

California trailed early on as Prairie Home took a 1-0 lead in the first inning. The Pintos tied the game in the bottom of the second inning, with a runner on third and one out, as the Pintos brought their runner home to bring the score to 1-1.

After a 1-2-3 top of the third inning, the Pintos quickly got two men on base with one out in the bottom half of the inning. A double by Cody Williams scored both runners and gave California a 3-1 lead. Later in the inning, with two men on and two outs, another double made it a 4-1 lead for California. Thanks to yet another double by Kaden Bax, the Pintos led 6-1 by the end of the inning.

Being able to have multiple innings in a row where they’ve scored a run can help the team relax, head coach Steven Stock said.

“Any time it is 1-1 — I don’t know if there is any pressure, but if you do call it pressure — if you get four or five runs, it seems like you can just go out there and play ball,” Stock said.

Being able to score runs with two outs like they did in the third inning is a plus, Stock said.

“That means you are getting base hits and the kids are putting the bat on the ball and finding holes,” Stock said. “It is huge if you can score with two outs.”

The score remained 6-1 until the top of the sixth inning as after back-to-back walks, Prairie Home scored on a sacrifice bunt to make it 6-2. The Panthers scored one more time after a wild pitch to make it 6-3.

California had a chance to get some runs back in the bottom of the sixth inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, but the team could not get a run to score.

In the top of the seventh inning, Prairie Home had a runner on base and one out and the game ended on an unusual double play — after getting the Panther’s batter out at first base after a ground ball, the Pintos were able to get the final out after throwing the ball back to third base to tag out the runner trying to advance to third.

With the summer baseball season over, the Pintos end the year with a perfect record of 4-0.