Pirate nine no-hits Chief Sealth, 6-0

By CHARLIE PIETERICK

For The Beachcomber

The Vashon High School Pirates baseball team opened its season with a 6-0 no-hit shut-out of the Chief Sealth Seahawks in Seattle last week.

The Pirates’ first run of the season was emphatically tallied early in the first inning when senior Chris Allman unleashed a monster triple to the left field fence scoring junior Chris Pieterick who had walked earlier. Allman later scored to give senior lefty Micah Deibell a 2-0 cushion when he took the mound for the first time.

Deibell showed good early season form with a fastball that left Sealth batters looking and off-speed pitches that had them flailing.

When Seahawk batters did contact the ball, they were efficiently put down by Pirate defenders.

Senior Justin Calhoun, who was moved from third base to second because of a throwing arm injury, flawlessly turned several opportunities. Pieterick at shortstop made a spectacular diving stop of a line-drive over second base, which he finished from his knees with a put-out at first.

Sophomore Geran Webb led off the second inning with a triple to right center. He later scored on a slow roller past the right side of the mound by teammate Wes Paulson.

Allman relieved Deibell on the mound in the fifth to preserve the shutout win.

Pirate coach Steve Hall was happy with his team’s opening performance.

“Micah looked solid on the mound. I was happy with our defense. Justin did a great job in his new position. ‘Shoey’ (senior catcher Tom Shoemaker) called a great game,” he said.

“Offensively, we were able to push the ball to the right to move runners. We had few strikeouts. Our batters were looking for the opportunity to make contact and put the ball in play.”