Emmett Pitches Dodgers Past Point Pirates 7-3 in JSBL

In game one of a doubleheader, the LA Dodgers defeated the Point Pirates by the score of 7-3 at the Christian Brothers Academy field on Saturday afternoon.

The Pirates' offensive attack was held at bay by Dodgers' hurler Zach Emmett. The righthander held the Pirates to only three hits and one earned run over five-plus innings of work.

The NJIT product at one point in the contest retired ten Pirates' batters in a row, a streak that was finally snapped by back-to-back walks in the two-run Pirates sixth inning.

 “Their guy did an outstanding job against us here today,” said Pirates skipper Anthony DelPriore. “We didn’t expect to get many runs against him, but we were able to stay in the game and we eventually got him out of the game.”

The Pirates were poised for the comeback in the sixth inning. With one out, a two-run single by Joe Garguila cut the Pirates' deficit to three runs.

Following the single, Emmett walked Graham Comeso, which forced the Dodgers to yank their ace in favor of reliever Adam Vogel.

After a double steal advanced the runners to second and third, Vogel buckled down and left both runners stranded on the bases, after he induced an infield popup and a ground ball back to himself.

“We need to have a better approach in those situations,” said DelPriore. “When you have a chance to really get back in the game, the guys just have to shorten our swings up and that will lead to us stringing hits together. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to do that.”

The Dodgers for most of the day were held at bay by Pirates' hurler A.J. Warwick, but scored three runs in the bottom half of the third inning, courtesy of a throwing error by left fielder Anthony Bizen, which led to the first Dodgers run.

Gary Mannuzza knocked in two more runs on a hard-hit single to left center field, which capped off the Dodgers' three-run frame.

“A.J. worked real hard for us out there and gave us everything he had today,” said DelPriore. “I thought he threw the ball well for us, and it’s too bad he had one bad inning there in the third.”

Warwick pitched into the fifth inning before a leadoff walk and a run-scoring double to Vogel forced DelPriore to turn to reliever and Point Borough product Kevin Bobertz.

Bobertz went two innings and allowed two unearned runs in the sixth inning.  With runners on the corners and one out, a throwing error by second baseman Jim McConnvile on what was a tailor-made double play ball allowed the Dodgers to stretch their lead back to five.

“At the end of the day, it comes down to not playing sharp baseball,” said DelPriore. “We had some opportunities to make some plays, we didn’t do it and that was the difference in the game.”