Gritty Pios rally late, win first two against Horseheads

Gritty Pios rally late, win first two against Horseheads
June 17th, 2021 | Zach McKinstry - Pioneers

The Pioneers entered last night winning their last 6 games against the Casper Horseheads, and the majority of the 7 games played between the two have been handily wins. That was not the case last night after an eventful back and forth game resulted in a 6-5 Western Nebraska victory.

Once again, the Pios hopped on the scoreboard first with RBI singles from Eric Smelko and Cade McGee and entered the bottom of the 2nd up 2-0. Defense had struggles in the bottom half however, and 3 runs scored on a pair of errors which gave Casper their first lead against the Pioneers since the 5th game between the two.

The teams would trade blows with each picking up runs in the 4th and the Horseheads adding another in the 5th, but entering into the 7th, Casper had a 5-3 lead. The Pioneers bats once again found success in the latter innings as Jon Ponder continued his stellar series by picking up an RBI single which cut the lead to 5-4. Brandon Haston threw a 1-2-3 bottom half and for the first time in the game it seemed like the Pios had momentum. Caden Edwards led off the top of the 8th with a walk and Cade McGee worked a 3-1 count, but a scorching ground ball turned into a double play and whatever energy that the Pios had seemed to vanish, as they needed another spark.

That spark would come in the form of a 2-out pop up from JT Waldon, which was lost in the lights and allowed Waldon to reach second. Tyler Davis followed up with a clutch RBI single to tie the game, and the Taco John’s player of the game Charlie Deeds would give the Pios the leads with his RBI double, and the Pios dugout was fired up.

Paul Panduro got the final 4 outs of the game with an electric save, wrapping up the game with a line drive reeled in by Marroquin, and the Pios would win 6-5. They advance to 14-5 and try to sweep the series Thursday night at 6:35.

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