LA MIRADA, California- Lance Smith
The Shepherds had their second game in as many days on Sunday afternoon versus the Inland Valley Pirates. The series going into today was tied at 1-1 as both teams looked to take the season series lead. The Sheps called upon Andrew White to start the game from the bump.
White provided a strong start through 4.0 innings giving up just 1 earned run, but unfortunately his outing was cut short by an injury. Head coach, Mike Creason, explained that after a long week of camp White didn't have his legs under him and felt that it was better to be safe than sorry to avoid any injury. As a result, the bullpen had to work extended innings, hampering the team’s chances of coming away with a win. Regardless of the pitching staff’s performance, the bats were not up to the challenge that Pirates pitcher, AJ Moreno, presented as he was able to keep the Sheps quiet giving up just 1 run on 3 hits in 7.0 innings.
Looking ahead, the Sheps must find energy as they are in the home stretch of their season and have six more games in the next eight days. If they hope to make the top four in the Best of the West and challenge for the league crown, the Shepherds have to get their legs under them and find more consistency down the stretch. Todays game gives the Pirates their eleventh straight win as they remain undefeated in the month of July.
AJ Moreno (1-0) picked up the win and Andrew White (3-3) was tacked with the loss.
Notes
- Andrew White allowed just 1 ER in 4 IP
- Jake Washburn and Jackson LoBianco each threw 1.0 shutout inning of relief
- Jamie LaFramboise went 1-4 with an RBI single
- Emry Jackson went 1 for 3 with an RBI single and a walk
- Jake Lopez went 1-3 with a single
- Connor Aldrich went 1-4 with a single
Quote from head coach, Mike Creason
“What we need to do is start a little bit faster. I think we do pretty well in the middle and at the end of games scoring runs but I just think we got to start a little bit faster. We get some opportunities, but early for some reason we just never come up with the big hit. If we can do that and gain momentum early than that would help us close in on some of these games. I think that’s somewhat of a difference that we did early last week and during that stretch when we were winning some games and we just need to get back to that for tomorrow.”
What’s next
The Shepherds have another league game against the Long Beach Legends tomorrow at 4:30 PM PST. The game will be played at Whittier Christian High School and will be live streamed on the Shepherds Facebook page which can be found at https://www.facebook.com/socalfcabaseball/. To stay up to date on all things Shepherds baseball follow us on Instagram (@shepherds_baseball), Twitter (@SoCalShpherds), and Facebook (Southern California FCA Baseball).