SCOTTVILLE — Hart’s baseball team lost both of its games in the Larson’s Ace Hardware Invitational tournament Saturday in Scottville, 4-3 to Ludington and 12-0 to host Mason County Central.
The youthful Pirates went toe-to-toe with a polished Orioles outfit in the opener in a game that entertaining.
But the Pirates hurt themselves with three errors at inopportune times.
With the score 0-0 after three innings, the Pirates put together back-to-back doubles from Blake Weirich and Kyan Clark to take a 1-0 lead in the top of the fourth.
Ludington came right back to score three runs in the bottom half to take a two-run lead, 3-1. Hart scored two in the top of the sixth to tie it, 3-3.
The Orioles struck for the winning run in the bottom of the seventh after loading the bases on a pair of singles, an error and a hit batsman. The run scored on a wild pitch.
Weirich started the game on the hill for Hart and worked 5 1/3 innings yielding three unearned runs, three hits, three walks and struck out six.
The Pirates had a golden opportunity in the second inning of the second game when they loaded the bases with only one out, but back-to-back strikeouts ended the threat.
Hart filled the sacks again in the in the fourth, this time with no outs, but again failed to capitalize on the opportunity.
Ty Schlukebir pitched four innings and gave up just one hit, two runs (one earned), walked three and struck out two. But the game turned ugly after that as Hart’s relievers couldn’t hold back the Spartans.
Brendan Hiddema had a two-hit game.
