PALM SPRINGS, Calif. – Good teams win in variety of ways and Tuesday was no different for the Palm Springs POWER (12-2).
On a night when the POWER used three different pitchers in the first three innings and trailed early, they never did give up.
Cody Ducote’s three-run triple in the bottom of the fourth highlighted a six-run frame in which the POWER sent 10 men to the plate.
Palm Springs jumped on the board first when Tyler Laporte’s RBI double scored Jason Nall from second base with two down. The throw beat Nall, but his slide forced the ball out of Saints’ catcher Tom Fuller’s glove to make it 1-0.
Head coach Casey Dill knows his team has all the confidence in the world:
“We believe that we can win any game at any moment. We know we’re capable of scoring eight or nine runs in any inning. The guys coming off the bench are doing their job too.. we’re very deep.”
Arroyo Seco answered back with three runs of their own in the top of the third and added one in the fourth to make it 4-2.
Everyone knew it would be tough to keep the POWER offense down and the fourth was their inning.
The home team sent 10 men to the plate and scored six times to recapture the lead. Laporte and David Posas drove in runs with infield hits to tie the game and that brought Ducote to the plate with the bases loaded.
“It was kind of a long game, said Ducote.” It wasn’t my best day at the plate but I got one to fall and it was the deciding factor for us. We took hold of the lead from there.”
Tyler Laporte was big tonight for the POWER going 3-4 with an RBI and Ducote swiped four bags.
Ducote offered up a pretty sweet comparison for when he’s on the basepaths:
“I wouldn’t call myself Rickey Henderson on the basepaths,” Ducote joked. “I’d probably call myself Evan Gattis.”
Gabriel Gentner was the sixth POWER pitcher to take the mound and the righty breezed through the top of the ninth for his second save of the season.
The POWER and Saints will meet again tomorrow at 7:05 on $1 Admission Night.
POWER Schedule and Ticket Info
-Clinton Cole
