JV Pitman Baseball Earns First Tournament Victory

     During this last spring break, Pitman’s JV baseball team entered Merced’s Easter Tournament. After losing to Enochs 8-9 (8 inn) in their previous tournament for the championship (Oakdale Tournament), they came back wanting revenge. The teams in Pitman’s bracket consisted of La Grande, Merced and Atwater. Furthermore, Merced’s tournament type was Round Robin. Round Robin is when every team in one pool plays each other once. Their first game was against La Grande (Southern team) which they won 12-2 with the help of veteran Kody Brackett hitting a 3 run homerun. On the following day, they had a double header against league opponents such as Buhach Colony and the Atwater Falcons. Pitman had already swept Buhach in league, winning three games to none. As a result, Buhach showed a major improvement by beating Atwater (11-1) in their first game but came up short against Pitman.  In order to not have a three way tie for Pitman’s bracket, Pitman had to beat Atwater who they had also swept in league. Sure enough Pitman beat Atwater therefore advancing them to the Championship game against Merced which was on 4/27/11. Pitman had only played Merced twice in league going into the tournament splitting a game apiece. With all of the nerves kicking in for the championship game, both teams made more errors than they normally would have. As a result, the game had many lead changes until Brennan Hauser hit his first homerun of the year over the right center fence. Since Hauser’s homerun changed the game, it resulted in a momentum shift towards Pitman. In conclusion, Pitman did not let up which led them to their first tournament win of the year. Pitman hit a season high three homeruns in the tournament (Kody Brackett, Byron Baker, and Brennan Hauser). With only two weeks left in the season, Pitman JV (9-3 record) is currently in second place for the CCC league title behind Turlock (11-1) by two games. They only have three games left of league which are against Atwater, Merced and Turlock. In order to win league they have to win out and hope Turlock loses two out of their last three games.