After going three up, three down in the first inning, Washington scored runs in the next three frames en route to an 8-0 win over North Pitt. The victory marked its third in a row to start 2-A Eastern Plains Conference play.

Tripp Barfield threw 85 pitches in a complete-game shutout of the visiting Panthers. They had few baserunners in the game as they only got one hit off of Barfield and drew a walk. He struck out eight batters through his seven stanzas on the mound.

“I was really just spotting my fastball,” Barfield said. “My off speed kept them off balance, but it was mostly spotting my fastball, which helped me get ahead in the count. It was probably my most efficient game of my career. If you get ahead, it makes it easier.”

Coach Kevin Leggett added, “Our defense is coming around. In the beginning of the year, we had a lot of errors and nerves. It was partially because of the high expectations we had for ourselves, I think. We’ve been working hard in practice and things are starting to come.”

Barfield excelled at the plate, too. He went 3-for-3 with three RBI.

“I had a good approach and stayed back on the ball,” Barfield said. “I have a tendency to get out front, but if I stay back, I can hit it pretty hard.”

The Pam Pack used some small-ball techniques to get on the board in the second. A pitch hit lead-off batter Logan Little. He advanced to second on Cooper Anderson’s bunt single down the third-base line. Little scored when Barfield smacked a line drive back up the middle.

A sacrifice bunt from Drew Ferguson gave Washington a pair of runners in scoring position with one out. Tyler Harrell’s sac-fly RBI plated Anderson to give the Pam Pack a 2-0 advantage going into the third.

“We worked on it a lot at the beginning of the year,” Leggett said. “It took about four or five games to get a bunt down. That was about 30 minutes of practice (on Monday), just working on getting bunts down. It showed off tonight.”

Shortstop Frederick Holscher turned a double play in the top of the third before scoring Matt Black with a base hit over shortstop in the bottom half of the inning. Little scored on an error after Anderson put the ball in play, making it 4-0 after three frames.

 

After scraping together a run in the fourth, the Pam Pack got three across in the sixth. Cody Godley, taking the plate for the first time in over two weeks, reached after being hit with a pitch. Jacob Smith and Holscher drew walks to load the bases with one out.

Godley came in when Anderson was also hit with a pitch. Barfield made it 8-0 when his single to left field brought home Holscher and Smith.

The Pam Pack travels to North Pitt Thursday for the backend of its home-and-home series with the Panthers.