By Josh Miller
PALM SPRINGS, CA — The POWER (9-1, 1-1) lost a heart-breaker 4-3 to the Inland Valley Pirates (8-2, 4-1) on Wednesday night at Palm Springs Stadium.
The story was Pirates starter Andrew Alvarez (Houston Baptist), who also hit cleanup for the Pirates and went 2-4 with an RBI and a run scored. Alvarez went eight innings giving up three runs on eight hits and struck out six.
POWER starter Bill Olsen (Arkansas Pine-Bluff) got two outs in the sixth inning before being pulled in favor of lefty Jesse Bristow (CSU Pueblo).
The POWER were down 4-1 in the 6th inning when shortstop Scotty Burcham (Sacramento State) doubled with one out, then first baseman Connor Klein (Western Nevada) followed that with a double of his own to bring the score to 4-2.
After a passed ball, Klein moved to third base and scored on a throwing error by catcher Christian Kelley (Cal Poly Pomona).
With the score at 4-3 in the bottom of the ninth inning, Klein singled to lead off the inning against pitcher Aaron Reynoso (Cal Poly Pomona).
Reynoso was pulled in favor of Jack Johnson (UC Riverside), who retired A.J. Young (Utah) on a sacrifice bunt. He then walked pinch hitter Colby Hamilton (Central Arizona), retired Trent Pell (Oakland) on a controversial play at first base, and then walked Hayden Nielsen (BYU) to load the bases.
Jake Howeth (Texas-Wesleyan), the team’s best hitter, then struck out against Johnson with the bases loaded to end the game.
The POWER return to action this Friday, June 13th against the OC Waves. Friday is also Timothy Bradley, Jr. night at Palm Springs stadium, with the boxing legend and Cathedral City native throwing out the first pitch. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm.
