You could say the Park University Gilbert baseball team has a motto similar to the post office; Neither a two-week layoff, a long trip to northern California, cool weather and heavy air could keep the Buccaneers from swinging the sticks and scoring runs in bunches.  The Buccaneers (6-3, 4-0 Cal Pac) handed Simpson University (0-15, 0-4 Cal Pac) their 15th straight loss on the season as the Bucs remained undefeated in their first season in the Cal Pac.

"The boys did great with a long day of travel," said Buccaneers head coach Kelly Stinnett. "Really proud of the way we competed, and Frank did a great job on the mound tonight."

Buccaneers starting pitcher Frank Racioppo went out and threw five solid innings, scattering eight hits, allowing two runs and striking out three to go to 2-0 on the season. Luke Richards making his first appearance in relief, threw the final four innings to pick up his first career save. 

At the plate, the Buccaneers got things going in the third. Andrew Dresden led things off with a walk, then stole second.  Anton Melendez followed with a single to center to score Dresden and Melendez took second when the Red Hawk center fielder misplayed the ball.  Julian Garcia-Schroeder reached via a bunt base hit and proceeded to steal second.  Then Alex Stinnett reached via an error which allowed Melendez to plate the Bucs second run of the inning. After left fielder  Diego Bejarano was hit by a pitch, Garcia-Schroeder scored on a wild pitch and Stinnett followed him home when the Red Hawk catcher couldn't gather the ball. The final run of the inning scored when Joel Adamson singled to left to score Bejarano.

The Bucs added five more in the fifth behind four doubles a single and a Simpson error. The Bucs led 10-0 at this point and seemed to have the game well in hand.  Racioppo gave up his two runs in the bottom half of the fifth before coming out having thrown almost 100 pitches. He was replaced by Richards, who cruised for three innings before running into a little hiccup in the bottom of the ninth where he coughed up four runs, including a three-run blast.  But it was not enough for the Red Hawks as the were still six runs short.

For the game, Garcia-Schroeder went 2-6 at the plate to extend his streak of reaching base to 12 games. Stinnett was making his debut today for the Buccaneers and went 1-4 with two RBI's, two walks and a run scored. Austin Chouinard and DJ Downen each added two hits with a double.  Downen also drove in three runs.  Adamson continued to swing a hot bat, driving in three runs. Dresden returned to the lineup to get two hits and two free passes. Melendez had his second multi hit game this year as he had a three-hit contest and a walk. Every Buccaneer batter reached base in some way shape or form and five of the Bucs nine hitters had a multi-hit game.

There are three games remaining for the weekend, but only the two in the double header tomorrow will count towards the conference standings.  Aaron de Groot will start one of the two contests tomorrow with either Jackson Moltz or Nic Villarreal getting the ball in the other. The first game starts at 12 p.m. with the second game to start 30 minutes after the completion of the first.