On Friday afternoon at Porter Ridge High School the Independence Patriots’  baseball squad earned its third straight win with a 2-0 victory over the Pirates.

Indy’s junior southpaw Raja Milton pitched six scoreless innings to pick up the win.  Milton allowed only two hits while striking out seven and walking only two Pirate hitters.

Drew Harris, a junior right hander, got the call to close the game for the Patriots.  Harris allowed no hits and threw ten pitches for strikes to pick up the save.

The Patriots’ first run came in the top of the third inning when Bubba Comer reached first on a fielder’s choice.  Nate Brown followed and beat out a bunt for a hit and moved Comer to second.  With two outs Matthew Mangum singled to the outfield to score Comer putting Indy up 1-0.

Indy added an insurance run in the top of the seventh.  With one away, Indy’s CJ Brown hit a hard grounder up the middle for a single.  Chase Rappe picked up a hit on a bunt moving Brown over to second.

The back-to-back singles prompted a pitching change for the Pirates.  Nick Wernli came in to relieve Price Hargett who went six and one third innings giving up one run on six hits, one walk and striking out five Indy batters.

After the pitching change, Wernli allowed both runners to advance on a wild pitch.  With Indy runners on second and third, Raja Milton hit a sacrifice fly to left field.  CJ Brown tagged up and started home after the catch.  The Pirates’ left fielder made the throw to the plate but Brown’s head first slide into home put Indy up 2-0.

The Pirates were unable to mount any offense in the bottom half of the seventh inning and Indy took a 2-0 conference win to move into third place in the Southwestern Conference.

Independence  0  0  1  0  0  0  1 –  2

Porter Ridge    0  0  0  0  0  0  0  –  0