– Jon Charron –

Pacific Grove improved to 11-2 in the MTAL and swept the season series with Stevenson after winning 7-2 on Thursday afternoon. [04-30-15]

Senior Anthony Coppla couldn’t have had a better game for the Breakers in their victory. Coppla went 2 for 4 at the plate, scored a run, and had 2 RBI’s. Coppla also added a stolen base and snagged a liner out of the air while manning third base.

Anthony Coppla hitting one of his two doubles in the Breakers win.

After a Kacee Takasaki walk in the bottom of the first, Coppla came to the plate and launched a double into left field, scoring Takasaki. Giving the Breakers an early 1-0 lead over the pirates.

In the second inning, it was Chris Fife, another senior, who hit a rocket down the right field line. As Fife raced around for the triple, Eric Boerner and Nathan Moses each scored to give the Breakers a 3-0 advantage after two innings.

The Pirates finally got something going in the top of the third inning. After a first batter strike out, the Pirates got a single followed by a throwing error that allowed the runners to move to second and third. Fife, who had just given the Breakers a 3-0 lead, made a costly error when he fielded a ground ball and overthrew the catcher as he tried to gun out the runner at the plate. That would be the only damage done in the inning though, as Dan Harrington would then strike out two of the next three batters to end the inning for the Breakers.

Fife started the bottom of the fourth off with a leadoff single. With Takasaki at the plate, Fife was caught in a pickle after trying to steal and was

Chis Fife (White) caught in a pickle in the bottom of the 4th inning against RLS

tagged out. After Takasaki drew a walk, Coppla would hit his second double of the game to score Takasaki for the second time in the game. Harrington, would then hit a single to score Coppla. Putting Pacific Grove up 7-1 after four innings.

After five innings of solid work on the mound, Dan Harrington was replaced by Kacee Takasaki. It didn’t start that great for Takasaki, he walked the first Stevenson batter, then gave up two singles to load the bases with no outs. After a deep fly ball went to left field, James Donlan hit the cutoff man Fife quickly before the Pirates had a chance to send the runner home. The next batter then popped up to Fife for the second out of the inning. The Pirates would eventually score a run in the inning when they hit a hard grounder up the middle that went through the legs of Takasaki and into center field.

“It was big,” Anthony Coppla said of only allowing 1 run after the bases had been loaded. “We have confidence in Kacee and he has confidence in us. We just want him to throw pitches and have them hit the ball and let us make the play.”

Dan Harrington, who picked up a save in the win over King City on Tuesday, was the winning pitcher against Stevenson on Thursday afternoon. Harrington struck out 7, while only giving up 1 run. “It was a great win [today], we came off of a tough win out in King City the other day and it was a great confidence boost,” Coppla said.

A big week ahead looms for Pacific Grove. They will play a home game on Monday against Greenfield, who the Breakers beat by a combined score of 22-0 earlier in the season, before heading to Carmel on Wednesday and Soledad on Friday.

“We got to look at Greenfield as competition,” Coppla said. “We can’t overlook them, we got to hit the ball well, keep our fundamentals, not do too much, and use it as a practice game for Carmel and Soledad.”

Pacific Grove (15-7, 11-2) will next play at home against Greenfield (6-11, 4-8) on Monday, May 4, 2015 at 4:00 p.m.

Stats –

Follow on Twitter @jonwaynecharron