The Cosumnes River College Hawks’ late inning rally fell short, as the visiting Modesto Junior College Pirates were able to seal a victory at Conway Field on April 20.

Two consecutive big innings for the Pirates spoiled an otherwise strong pitching performance from a rotating door of Hawks pitchers.

“We ran a lot of guys in there, a lot of bullpen guys,” said Hawks’ sophomore first baseman Garrett Heisinger. “But they all did very well I thought.”

The Hawks’ pitching staff was virtually un-hittable for the first six innings of the game. Freshman starting pitcher Nate Gonzalez made his first start of the year for the Hawks and set the tone early with two strikeouts and zero walks on two innings pitched, before being pulled for freshman pitcher Shane Martin.

Pirates’ sophomore starting pitcher Ty Galloway ran into some early trouble in the third and fourth inning before settling down in the later innings.

Sophomore outfielder Colby Wilmer scored the first run of the game in the third inning off of a dropped fly ball by freshman outfielder Kaden Cline, pushing the score to 1-0 in the Hawks’ favor. The Hawks would strike again in the following inning when sophomore first baseman Joe Bettencourt capitalized on a wild pitch off the catcher’s shin, which scored the Hawks’ second run of the game.

“I just tried to keep attacking the strike zone,” Galloway said. “I knew the runs were unearned, but I had to keep my team in it.”

The Pirates’ offense, which up to the sixth inning was held off the bases, erupted in the later part of the ball game.

Freshman infielder Gino Franceshetti coaxed a bases loaded walk to score the Pirates’ first run of the game.  Freshman outfielder Patrick Mulry followed with a groundout to the first baseman forcing home the Pirates’ second run of the inning. Freshman infielder Damien Arteago broke things open on the following at-bat with a double over the center fielder’s head, plating two. By the end of the seventh the Hawks were down 4-2.

The Pirates were able to follow the seventh inning with another four run inning in the top of eight, improving the lead to 8-2 over the Hawks.

Not to be outdone, the Hawks stormed back in the bottom of the eighth starting with a single into right field by freshman

outfielder Josh Cosio. A RBI single and a two RBI double later and the Hawks eased the deficit down to two runs by the end of the eighth inning.

“When we fell down it was an energy drop but as soon as people started getting hits we started putting the pieces back together,” Heisinger said.

Following a routine top of the ninth the Pirates trusted their two-run lead to sophomore pitcher Don Fairchilds who came in to close the game for Modesto.

CRC made things interesting for the fans, scoring a run in the ninth, but the Pirates ended any hopes for the Hawks with a pitch at the knees, ending the game 8-7.

“We didn’t play very well at all, it was a combination of things,” said freshman infielder Hunter Carolan. “We battled back, and we thought we had a chance, it just didn’t work out.”