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| The man with the golden arm |
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| Written by Marc Aceves | Patterson Irrigator | |
| Wednesday, 09 July 2008 | |
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Pirates’ Pease rolls to shutout victory Patterson’s James Pease ruled the mound Sunday at Garza Park, setting down the Stockton Shockers through seven, then eight and finally nine full innings as he fashioned a four-hit, 4-0 victory for the Pirates. The Pirates’ lefty struck out seven batters and walked none in a complete-game shutout. His fastball was consistently accurate, but it was his sharp curve and changeup that gave hitters fits. “I hadn’t pitched in a while, so I felt good,” Pease said. “(Rudy Lozano) called a good game as our catcher. I just kept with what he was calling, and it turned out well.”  ON TARGET: The Pirates’ James Pease tosses a pitch against a Stockton Shockers opponent with a runner on second in a Sunday game. Pease pitched his way out of this jam and others en route to a complete-game shutout victory at home. Photo by Elias Funez/Patterson Irrigator “James was the key,” Patterson’s Josh Hamm said. “He threw strikes, got ahead and we made some plays for him. He did a great job for us today, and we can’t ask for anything better than that.” A complete-game shutout — always regarded as a jewel in the pitching trade — will do wonders for a starter coming of age in the mid-season. Especially when Patterson (4-5) has dropped so many close games this season. “We’ve lost a lot of close ones,” Pease said. “Record-wise, we could be a little better than we’ve shown, but right now our goal is to continue to compete and to keep playing solid — and we should be fine.” The Pirates jumped to an early 3-0 lead, capitalizing on four first-inning hits, including three doubles. Patterson’s Tino Ramirez led off the home half of the first, slapping a crisp single past the Shockers’ shortstop and into left field. Teammate Beto Rodriguez followed, cracking a line drive toward left. The Shockers outfielder misjudged the ball, and it sailed over his head, allowing Ramirez to score and Rodriguez to cruise into second. “We stepped pretty good right away,” Patterson’s Rafael Arroyo said. “We used some early steady hitting to produce some runs and made contact when we needed to.” The Pirates’ Jose Garza also tagged a double into the left-center field gap, plating Rodriguez. Garza eventually trotted home on teammate Mark Gonzalez’s two-bagger. “When you can score three runs in the first inning, it does a lot for your pitcher,” Hamm said. “All we had to do was continue to (work defensively) and keep the lead for him.” Stockton put a pair of runners aboard to lead off the second inning, but Pease buckled down, inducing a fielder’s choice and striking out two in a row to get out of the jam. Pease allowed only two hits through the first six innings. “Today was also about our hitting and our defense,” Pease said. “All around, we looked pretty good. This league is very competitive. Each team can come out and win on any given Sunday.” Patterson tacked another run to its lead in the bottom of the sixth inning. The Pirates loaded the bases, giving Pease an opportunity to help himself out. He lifted a high fly ball into left, more than deep enough to allow Garza to tag up and score from third. “In this league, one run is important — it’s a lot,” Hamm said. “There aren’t going to be a lot of 10-0 shutouts or anything like that. Every run counts out here.” Pease closed the Shockers out the rest of the way, allowing only two more Stockton hits. The Pirates look to move forward with the momentum from Saturday’s shutout when they face the Ceres Coyotes on Sunday at Ceres High. “We’re taking it game by game,” Arroyo said. “There is some very good pitching in this league. At this point, we need to try to play errorless ball and not take ourselves out of any games.” To reach Marc Aceves at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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