CYPRESS, California - Lance Smith

The Shepherds had another preseason game Tuesday afternoon versus the Orange County Pirates that once again did not go their way. The Pirates came ready to play, scoring 12 runs and paralyzing the Shepherd offense giving up no runs on 3 hits.

One bright spot for the Shepherds was starting pitcher, Andrew Sutherland, who finished with 5.0 innings pitched, 4 strikeouts, and just 3 runs given up. From there, the bullpen was not able to keep the Shepherds in the game giving up 5 walks and hit 3 batters leading to a 9 spot in the 6th inning which all but ended any chance of a comeback. At the plate, the offense did not do much to help the pitchers out with only 3 hits, all of which were singles. The defense continues to play well and shows no signs of holding the team back. Certainly, it is more complicated than it seems, but this season’s success will come down to the pitchers throwing strikes and the batters getting hits.

Joel Martinez (1-0) earned the win and Andrew Sutherland (0-1) was tacked with the loss.

Notes

- Kaiden Zacharias started at Center for the first time this season.

- Andrew Sutherland threw his first innings of the season

- Sutherland had a first strike percentage of 52.2%

- Gabe Jackson threw 2.0 perfect innings of relief.

- Emry Jackson got on base 2 of his 3 plate appearances with a single and a walk.

- Kaiden Zacharias stole his 1st base of the season.

- In 6 total chances, shortstop, Jamie LaFramboise, recorded 1 putout and 5 assists.

- Dylan Smith logged his first inning at catcher this season.

Quote from Coach Creason

“There are a lot of positives, you know, besides one inning we pitched a lot better than we have been, competed in the zone a lot better, and we were more competitive at the plate. So those two things combined, I think if we can continue those and find some holes we can build on those and continue to learn I think we’ll be alright.”

What’s Next

The Shepherds have their second home game at Whittier Christian versus the Ventura County Buccaneers tomorrow, June 16th at 4:30 PM PST. The game 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).