By Josh Miller
POMONA, CA — The POWER (18-2, 4-2) split their doubleheader against their conference rivals the Inland Valley Pirates (14-4, 5-3) at Scolinos Field on Monday.
The Pirates won game 1 by a score of 3-2 with Andrew Alvarez (Houston Baptist) picking up the win and POWER starter Morgan Earman (Arizona) taking his first loss of the season.
Alvarez, who beat the POWER back on June 11, was superb going 8 1/3 innings and giving up two runs on eight hits with four strikeouts.
Earman gave up two runs on five hits with two walks and four strikeouts over 6 1/3 innings of work.
Inland Valley scored the first run of the game in the fifth inning when Jacob Bernardy (Cal Poly Pomona) singled home Nathan Virgen (Cal State Monterey Bay) after a leadoff triple.
They scored again in the seventh when Inland Valley put on a gutsy suicide squeeze call with Johnny Reynoso at the plate and the bases loaded.
Morgan Earman was taken out in favor of lefty Jesse Bristow (Colorado State Pueblo) with one out in that same inning.
The Pirates added an insurance run in the eighth when Greg Espinosa (Houston Baptist) singled home Christian Kelley (Cal Poly Pomona).
Palm Springs surged to life in the ninth after back-to-back one-out singles by Jake Howeth (Texas Wesleyan University) and Zach Sterry (Oakland University). West Tunnell (Baylor) then doubled bringing Howeth home.
With two outs and Danny Edgeworth (Mercer) at the plate, Sterry scored the second and last run before Edgeworth struck out to end the game with Tunnell the tying run at third.
In Game 2, Brooks Kriske (USC) picked up his third win of the season with a score of 3-1, tossing six innings and giving up one run on eight hits with two strikeouts.
Mitch Bluman (San Diego State University) was brilliant in relief throwing three scorless innings to earn the save.
The POWER struck first in the third inning when Jake Howeth singled home Scotty Burcham (Sacramento State University) following Burcham’s leadoff walk and and a Hayden Nielsen (BYU) single. Then Nielsen scored on a failed double play attempt.
It was 2-1 in the seventh inning when maybe the most creative play occurred. After a Hunter Bening (NW Florida St.) single with Burcham on second and two down, Bening got himself picked off but gave Burcham a chance to run home before Bening was tagged out.
This gave the POWER a comfortable two-run cushion with Bluman pitching a scoreless ninth inning.
The POWER play again tomorrow night against Team San Diego (15-6, 6-2) at Palm Springs Stadium, first pitch at 7:05. It is also Teacher Appreciation night and dollar beer night at the ballpark so we hope to see you all there.
