Altha takes 11-inning pitcher’s duel over Sneads

Altha’s Chad Scott and Sneads’ Pat Jones pitched 10-inning gems Friday night in Altha.

Unfortunately for Scott and Jones, neither were rewarded for pitching 10 shutout innings with a decision.

Josh McIntosh delivered a two-out double to score Keith Kirkpatrick in the bottom of the 11th to give the Wildcats a dramatic 1-0 win.

Both Scott and Jones exited the game after the 10th inning, with Kirkpatrick coming on in relief for Altha and Marcus Beauchamp coming out of the bullpen Sneads.

After working through the top of the 11th without giving up a run on the mound, Kirkpatrick came up first in the bottom of the frame and led the inning off with a single.

Kirkpatrick then stole second base and, two batters later, scored the winning run for the district victory.

“It was a great pitcher’s duel,  a great game,” Sneads coach Mark Guerra said. It was one of those games that, whether you win or lose, you’re happy that the boys played that well.
“We didn’t have many errors and I was very pleased with the way we played defensively.”

Unfortunately, the offense wasn’t quite as sharp, striking out 17 times at the hands of Scott.

“We didn’t swing the bat as good as I would’ve liked,” Guerra said. “We looked at good pitches, swung at some bad ones, but (Scott) pitched real well.
“He spotted the fastball pretty well, got us off balance with the breaking stuff…he just pitched a real good game.”

As did the Pirates’ starter, striking out a whopping 19 Altha hitters.

“Pat Jones pitched his best game of the year,” Guerra said. “He’s just a totally different pitcher from the first half of the season. He really had control and was throwing hard. He challenged them with fastball after fastball and they never could put the bat on the ball. He was throwing with a lot of confidence.
“If he pitches like that the rest of the way, we’re going to start winning some games.”
Guerra said that Jones wanted to finish the game, but the coach that it was always best to err on the side of caution with a young pitcher.
“He was begging not to come out and it’s a coach’s dream to have a kid who doesn’t want to come out of the game with the game on the line,” the coach said. “But I didn’t want to hurt him or get him out of shape.”

Sneads fell to 3-13 with the loss and 2-4 in district play, though Guerra said that Friday’s loss felt distinctly different than some of the Pirates’ other defeats this season.

“You can swallow a 1-0 loss a lot more than some of the others, with us giving up 10 runs and stuff,” the coach said. “Wanted to win and it still hurts not to win. But we’re going to find it.
“(Friday) was a good start.  We just have to keep hacking away at something, keep working with these pitchers and hope this is the first domino to start the domino effect of playing a good game defensively.”

Sneads next plays Deland Tuesday in Jacksonville.