| Pirates
lose opener
The Prairie baseball team came out on the short end of a pitchers’ duel in their season opener as they lost at Orofino 0-1 Friday, March 10. 
The Pirates were supposed to play 2 games Friday and 1 Saturday but cancellation by a couple of the teams involved cut Prairie’s participation down to just the one game against the host Maniacs. Prairie’s C.J. Rieman and Orofino’s Lucas Rouse hooked up in the duel as each went the distance for their teams. Rieman allowed just 5 hits while Rouse limited the Pirates to just 4 hits. Prairie was able to advance a runner as far as third only once. In the fourth inning Rieman led off and struck out but the third strike got past the catcher and Rieman reached first. He stole second and Dan Riener was then walked. A wild pitch advanced both runners but 2 popups and a strikeout ended the scoring threat.  Orofino
got their only run in the third. A leadoff flare to right dropped between
the infielders and rightfielder Sam Forsmann for a hit. A passed ball moved
the runner to second and a groundout to the pitcher moved him to third.
Rouse the dropped another flare into right field to score the runner.
Orofino had just 1 solid hit, a second inning leadoff double to left center. Prairie had 2 infield hits, 1 each by Mat Forsmann and Sean Daly and solid singles by Forsmann and Phil Henry. For the game Rieman went 6 innings allowing the 5 hits with 8 strikeouts and no walks. The Pirates struck out 11 times and received 2 walks. Sam Forsmann earned the other walk. Prairie 0 0 0 0 0 0 0—0 4 0 Orofino 0 0 1 0 0 0 x—1 5 0 Forsmann tosses no-hitter Mat Forsmann tossed a no-hitter at Culdesac Monday, March 13 in a game shortened to 5 innings by the 10-run mercy rule as the Pirates won 12-0. 
Forsmann struck out 10 hitters and was 1 hit batsman away from a perfect game. Offensively Prairie took advantage of Culdesac errors and walks to score their early runs. Forsmann started things off in the first by lining a 1-1 pitch up the middle for a single. He stole second and moved to third on a grounder to short. He then scored when Dan Riener’s sky-high pop-up was dropped for an error. In the second inning Ron Chandler led off and reached when the third baseman’s throw was wide of first. Chandler went to second on a passed ball. Phil Henry walked and both runners advanced on a balk. Sam Forsmann then reached when the first baseman dropped the throw with Chandler scoring. Chris Schumacher then grounded out but picked up an RBI as Henry scored. Sam Forsmann scored when Sean Daly’s pop fly was dropped for an error. In the third Riener and Eric Lerandeau both walked. After a change of pitchers, Chandler greeted the new pitcher by taking a 1-1 pitch over the left centerfield fence for a 3-run homer. Prairie proceeded to bat around as Henry was hit by a pitch but forced at second on Sam Forsmann’s grounded. That was the only out Culdesac’s second pitcher  would
get as Schumacher walked, Mat Forsmann singled to right, Sean Daly reached
on a dropped fly ball to left, C.J. Rieman doubled, Riener walked and Lerandeau
singled up the middle. That led to 5 more runs and another change of pitchers.
Chandler walked but the inning ended on a double play with Prairie ahead 12-0. Starting with 2 outs in the top of the fourth, Prairie sent up 7 straight pinch hitters as they tried to get everybody a chance at the plate. Forsmann needed only 63 pitches to record his gem as he went to a 3-ball count only twice and struck out the side twice. The defense only needed to make 5 plays and one of those came when Riener threw out the runner at first when he wasn’t able to hang on to a third strike. Culdesac failed to hit a ball out of the infield. The closest thing to a hit was a grounder to short that Rieman double clutched before throwing the runner out. Prairie had 5 hits in the game. Mat Forsmann had 2 singles. Chandler had a homer, Rieman a double and Lerandeau a single. With the win Prairie improves to 1-1 on the season and is 1-0 in league play. Prairie 1 3 8 0 0—12 5 0 Culdesac 0 0 0 0 0— 0 0 5 PIRATES BASEBALL 2006 March 21-at C.V., 4 p.m. 8-Genesee, here, 11 a.m. 11-Lewis County here, 4:30 p.m. 13-at Genesee, 4:30 p.m. 15-Troy here, 2 games, 11 a.m. 18-Culdesac here, 4:30 p.m. 20-at Lewis County, 4:30 p.m. 22-at Kendrick, 11 a.m. 25-at Timberline, 4:30 p.m. 27-Kamiah, here, 4 p.m. 5-13-District-Rds. 1 & 2 at #1 and #2 seeds, finals at Kendrick. 18-20-State at Lewiston PIRATES TRACK 2006 March 8-Clearwater River Invitational at Kamiah, 10 a.m. 15-J. Stewart Invite, Payette, 9:30 a.m. MDT 18-at Lapwai, 4 p.m. 22-Lewis & Clark Games at Kamiah, 10 a.m. 25-White Pine League Meet at Lapwai, 4 p.m. 29-Kamiah Invitational at Kamiah, 10 a.m. 12-13-Regionals at Kamiah, 4 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m. Saturday 19-20-State at Boise |
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