TRAVERSE CITY — The Traverse City Pit Spitters can only hope to win the rest of their home games.
After starting the season 5-0 at Turtle Creek Stadium, the Pit Spitters dropped their first home loss on Thursday against the Lakeshore Chinooks (5-4) in heartbreaking fashion, 2-1, to split the season series, as both starting pitchers made it difficult for any offense to get going.
Despite the loss, the Pit Spitters (7-3) remain a half-game ahead of the Rockford Rivets (6-3) — who leapfrogged the Battle Creek Battle Jacks (6-4) and Kenosha Kingfish (5-4) for second place in the Great Lakes East Division.
“We talked a few days ago about how we haven’t been in many pressure games yet. We had lopsided scores, and had one in Kalamazoo where we were up 5-0 then they tacked on a couple runs to make it a saving game,” Pit Spitters field manager Josh Rebandt said. “All it takes is one good starting pitcher, so regardless of who the competition is, I think these games help us down the road.”
The Pit Spitters won’t see the Rivets until June 21, but they welcome the Kingfish on Friday and Saturday beforing hitting the road for two games in Battle Creek on Sunday and Monday.
With two outs in the top of the ninth and runners on first and third, a wild pitch from right-handed pitcher Mason Hill gave Prince Deboskie the green light to come home and give the Chinooks the 2-1 lead.
“Close game and big environment. It’s those types of situations that you learn a lot from,” Rebandt said. “You learn things in lopsided scores, but you start seeing a lot when it’s a close game and seeing guys dig down.”
Before the go-ahead score, both starting pitchers had their own “King of the Mound” night, but Chinooks’ righthander Seaver Sheets (0-0, 2.61 ERA) won the duel by throwing gas to almost every Pit Spitters batter. Sheets had a clean first inning and made it difficult for the Spitters throughout the night.
“(Seaver) was throwing something that made it look similar to his fastball for our guys to chase as many times as they did,” Rebandt said. “He did a great job with two pitches to go through our order that many times and pitch efficiently.”
The Louisiana native wrapped up his night throwing for six innings while allowing three hits and striking out nine on 92 pitches.
Spitters’ Mike Long tacked on the second hit with a single to third, but was caught stealing after Trent Reed struck out. Sheets then struck out JT Sokolove to escape the inning.
Spitters’ righthander Ryan Daly (1-0, 0.75 ERA) held his own against the Chinooks for six innings. Daly finished the night striking out six while allowing five hits and walking two on 95 pitches. Daly pitched a perfect second, third and fifth inning.
“Both pitchers were in the strike zone a good amount. Daly had more freebies than Sheets, but both guys had multiple pitches for strikes,” Rebandt said.
Zan Von Schlegell tacked in the Chinooks’ first run in the top of the fourth to make 1-0 on two outs. Daly bounced back from the score with a groundout two batters later. The 6-foot-5 righty followed that performance with two strikeouts and a pick-off to first base in the top of the fifth inning, but the Spitters couldn’t capitalize.
The Spitters loaded the bases after three straight walks; but with two outs in the bottom of the sixth, second baseman Mark Kattula struck out on a 1-2 count.
Ethan Guerra and Alfredo Velazquez found their way on the bases the following inning, setting up Muskegon native Aaron Piasecki’s RBI single in the bottom of the seventh to tie it 1-1. But that is all the Spitters would manage on a night when runs were at a minimum.
The Spitters had a chance to take the lead in the bottom of the eighth with one out after pitcher Tyler Deleskiewicz (1-0, 2.45 ERA) walked Kattula and Velazquez, but he struck out Guerra and Michael Tchavdarov to escape the scare.
Jagger Neely (1-0, 2.25 ERA) is slated to take the mound for Traverse City on Friday in the first of a two-game home series against the Kingfish. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m.