By Joshua Yoder
LEWISTOWN – Spike Island got behind the bat of Keagan Soltis and the arm of Zack Tiracorda as the Pirates took down the Foxpro Predators by the final score of 8-0 to take game one of the CCBL playoff semi-finals on Thursday.
Soltis got off to a hot start as in the top of the first inning with a solo home run to give Spike Island a 1-0 lead.
The Pirates didn’t get on the board again until the top half of the fourth where they added three runs in the frame. First it was McGuire Heverly who blasted a double to centerfield scoring Soltis to make it 2-0. Allan Myers then singled to center which scored Heverly before a Parker Waite single to right which brought home Denny Prestash to extend the Spike Island lead 4-0.
Soltis stayed hot at the plate and collected his second home run of the game when he hammered a two run bomb over the left field fence scoring himself as well as Landon McDonald making it a 6-0 ballgame.
Spike Island put on the finishing touches in the top of the sixth inning tacking on two more runs starting with Bubba Slogosky who was hit by a pitch that scored Prestash and then Ryan Kephart drew a walk which brought home Jake DeSimone.
Soltis went a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate for the Pirates with two home runs, a double, three runs scored and three runs batted in. Heverly went 2-for-3 with a double along with an RBI and Waite was perfect as well going 2-for-2 with an RBI.
On the mound, Zack Triacorda looked unhittable as he pitched all seven innings for Spike Island and collected seven strikeouts and gave up no runs on only two hits. The only two Foxpro hits in the game were from Landen Eichhorn and Jaxson Pupo.
Connor Cherry got the start for the Predators putting in fifth innings of work and had four strikeouts and a walk. Ethan Eichhorn and Dan Brundage finished off the final two innings of the game.
Spike Island takes a (1-0) lead over Foxpro heading into game two of the best of five series as Spike Island hosts the Predators at Penns Valley High School on Sunday with game time at 2 p.m.