Pioneers Pace Slowed By Thunder, Drop Game 9-0

The Pioneers came back from a rare two days off to take on divisional for the Newark Pilots. The game would barely get underway before in climate weather would cause a delay. Brendan Koester pitched a perfect 1-2-3 top of the first before the delay kicked in and had the teams on the bench for over thirty minutes. 

The Pioneers came back to the batter's box and were able to get a runner to third, but as has been the case recently that was where the success ended for Elmira. The Pios have struggled to get runners home when they get base runners into scoring position. This continued throughout the night as Elmira would leave 11 men on base and drive around zero. 

The second inning saw Koester come back and pitch another perfect first two outs, but after surrendering a single and then hitting a batter the Pios would escape the inning with a throw out from catcher Bryce Moskiewicz on an attempted steal. When the Pioneers went back to the field for the third a similar story would be told as the first two outs came easily before Newark put up two runs off of three walks, a hit batter, and a single.

With the long delay Matt Burch decided to turn to the bullpen early and summoned Ryan Teschko for the fourth inning. Unfortunately fo Elmira, Teschko struggled as he gave up four runs in the top of the fourth and the Pioneers trailed 6-0 heading into their half of the inning. 

Drew Guldin was the next Pios pitcher to get the call. Guldin walked a batter in the fifth, but would recover and get out of the inning unscathed. In the sixth Elmira would not be so lucky as the Pilots were able to capitalize on a walked batter to bring him all the way around to make it a 7-0 lead. 

Keegan Ernest came in to pitch in the seventh and put up a 0 before Chase Austin was called on in the eighth. Austin struck out the side, but unfortunately the final strike out came after two more runs crossed the plate giving the Pilots a 9-0 advantage. Ben Terwilliger came in and closed the door in the ninth, but the Pioneers futility at the plate had ended the game long before this point. 

Elmira achieved five hits and six base on balls on the evening and left each and every runner stranded on the base paths. The Pios will continue to try to claw their way back into the standings as they head to Watertown on Friday evening to face off with the Rapids at 6:15 pm. Keep tabs on the newest information on your Elmira Pioneers on Facebook and on their website TheElmiraPioneers.com!