Baseball is a game of improvements.  Everyday you work to enhance the skills you have spent a lifetime nurturing.  But even with all of that hard work, mistakes happen, and if they occur at the wrong time it can cost your team a game.  Today against Arizona Christian, the Park University Gilbert Buccaneers (2-2) committed a few too many mistakes and the end result was a 13-5 loss at the hands of the Firestorm (1-0).

"We have to keep working to get better," said Buccaneers head coach Kelly Stinnett. "We made some mental errors today and you can't do that against a team like Arizona Christian.  They made us pay for it."

The Firestorm got on the board first in the top half of the second as they plated three runs.  An infield single by Jake Sim was followed by a sacrifice bunt where the Buccaneers lost track of Sim and he took third as they got the out at first.  That was followed by an error by third baseman Dylan Lindsey before a single and double brought two more runs home.

The Buccaneers answered with one in the third and one in the fourth.  In the third, designated hitter Shantell Jordan led off with a fly ball deep to right center field. It was misplayed by Arizona Christian centerfielder D'Marcus Guillory and Jordan was standing on third.  Shortstop Alvaro Barnett followed with a hard single to left to plate Jordan to get the Bucs on the board.

In the fourth, back-to-back walks to Alex Moreno and Connor Williams got the inning going and Lindsey made up for his earlier miscue with single back up the box to center to bring home Moreno and cut the deficit to one.

Buccaneers starter Aaron de Groot (0-2) settled in and kept the potent Firestorm bats in check through five.   But Arizona Christian found their swings in the sixth plating four runs and knocking de Groot out of the game.   Park-Gilbert answered in the bottom half of the stanza with three runs of their own to keep it a two-run game.

In the seventh, the Firebirds opened things up scoring five runs off of Buccaneer relievers Nic Villareal and Nevan Gillespie. And while Park-Gilbert was able to get runners on in each of their final three at bats, they were not able to get a rally going to get back in the game.   

The bottom half of the Park-Gilbert order did most of the damage today. Barnett led the Buccaneers with two of their seven hits and had an RBI,  Jordan had two RBI's with a single in the Bucs three-run sixth and scored a run. Catcher Austin Chouinard chipped in with a double and a run scored.  Cleanup hitter Moreno also had an outstanding game, with a double, two walks, two runs scored and a stolen base.

The Buccaneers return to action tomorrow afternoon at Apollo High School where they will take on Benedictine Mesa at 3 p.m.  Left Handed hurler Luke Richards gets the start for the Buccaneers.

Special Note: The Buccaneers game on Saturday is now at 11 a.m. at Tempe Diablo.  It was originally listed with a 3 p.m. start time.Austin Chouinard