Your Fort Collins Pilots played lights out ball last night vs the intermediate powerhouse Ajax – getting contributions on both sides of the ball from every player who graced Lincoln West.  Solid hitting – aggressive baserunning – dynamite fielding – and three of the best pitching performances of the season.  Despite falling 11 to 6 in 5 competitive innings the Pilots have much to celebrate and players to recognize and reasons to be excited for what’s next.  Your Friday morning recap …

Pilot Bats:  You want a highlight?  How about the first inning where our first 5 batters reached base.  Eli the Table Setting Jedi walks – steals – and scores on a passed ball.  The cast-less wonder Bradyn hits – Carson hits – Wyatt hits – and then Damian busts out the 2 run boom stick to left.  I was a mess chewing 13 pieces of nervous energy Dubble Bubble in the 3rd base box.  It was awesome to see and hear and feel the Pilots break out like they did in the 1st.  As the game unfolded just about every Pilot notched a hit during their time at the plate and we added in some heads up dropped 3rd baserunners for good measure. 

Pilot Arms:  Kevin R – stand up and take a bow.  And then sit down so we can see Wyatt take his bow.  Unreal performances by these 2 Pilot hurlers.  KR threw 35 pitches – 20 for strikes – and ended his sole inning with 3ks.  Wyatt twirled 2 and 1/3 strike throwing innings and kept the FCP in the game batter by batter.  And Nathan came out the gate throwing gas in the first and converting the first two outs of the 2nd, limiting the Ajax to a 2 spot on the board with his off speed brilliance.  Gritty gritty bang bang.   Well done you strike throwing strike throwers. 

Pilot Gloves:  The Pilots crushed it in the field.  Let’s italicize this for impact.  The Pilots crushed it in the field.  Eli set the tone in the 1st with his run and gun laser to nail a greedy Ajax batter trying to stretch a single to a double.  Pretty sure the field ump tweeted pics of this play -  with Wyatt applying the tag on a perfectly thrown ball from E.  The FCP outfield was nails.  Kevin R and Damian deserve their names in the paper again, as they caught fly balls that hung up in the sky long enough to have names.  Same deal with Carson putting a deep fly ball to LF to bed without supper.  And Bradyn at SS – and Eli at 2B – and KR at 3rd – and Bray Bray again at SS.  It was a beautiful game of musical chair outs across the infield and outfield.

Pilots Behind the Plate:  It is not often that we ask a single Pilot to man the mask for the entire evening – but Jack was up to the task – and the results were smashing.  Jack successfully made the adjustments between catching Nate’s butterfly/bee combo in the first few frames – to Wyatt’s no nonsense 2 1/3 ‘Not Today Ajax’ clinic – to KR’s absolute dominance of the strike zone in the final frame.  Catching is hard, dirty work.  And what GameChanger does not capture is his chatter – with the young ump, the batters, and of course his pitching staff.  Ball-game-impact.

Pilots Around the Bases:  Ballers ballers everywhere.  Just flat out awesome around the basepaths.  A straight steal is a thing of beauty and we had a bunch of them vs. a really competitive and competent battery.  Eli was stealing bags – Bradyn was stealing bags – Jayden and Carson and Wyatt, thieves all of ye!  Even Damian who was caught out skinny dipping when the tide went out still managed to swipe a bag via a sweet slide right under a pickle tag.  Just awesome.

Next Up:  Let’s have some practice shall we?  I’m calling for a Saturday / Sunday one-two punch leading up to Monday’s play-in play-off game vs. the PawSox.  We’ve got a few lads coming back from their holidays – a few lads coming back from injury – and 9 lads coming off a gem of a game vs the top team in the league.  Saturday we’ll get in some bullpen work to set our pitchers up for success – and Sunday we’ll do nothing but notch hits like the first Spice Girls record.  Look to Sports Engine for all the time and place details.  And look to your CD collection for the Spice Girls because there are some bangers on that one.  Wannabee?  Come on.  It stands up.

Hey – the Pilots played ball last night.  We didn’t win the game but we absolutely won innings.  We won at bats.  And we won the plays in front of us.  I was and I am beaming with pride at the way our guys battled.  We bring that fire and that execution and our Pilot brothers in arms (Ben / Ty / KC / Gentry) to the field on Monday and who knows what chapter we write in this bananas 2021 Pilot’s season.

Go Pilots – Go Pilots – and Go Pilots.  See you guys this weekend for our final tune up before Monday’s playoff game.

Coach Chris