The Fruitdale Pirates will advance to the second round of the Class 1A state playoffs after sweeping Pleasant Home Friday night 14-0 and 8-6.

This is the first time that the Pirates have made it to the first round of the playoffs in 12 years.

For the Eagles, this was their third trip to the playoffs.

Fruitdale 14,

Pleasant Home 0

The Pirates scored three runs in the second inning, one run in the fourth, four runs in the fifth and six runs in the sixth inning to shut down the Eagles.

“We played like a team today,” Fruitdale coach Scott Mason said. “We played a complete game for the first time in a while. Our defense was really great and we hit when we had to.

“(Pleasant Home) are a great bunch of young men and they are well coached,” he said. “They fought back and fought hard, but today was just our day.”

Fruitdale’s Jerrell “Bubba” Byrd was the winning pitcher, pitching 6.0 innings and allowing four hits, one walk and striking out three.

Fruitdale 8,

Pleasant Home 6

The Eagles scored two runs in the second inning to go up early in the second game on an RBI single from Ethan Soles to score Fernando Torres. Torres reached on a lead-off single.

Soles came around to score on a passed ball.

Fruitdale came right back in the bottom of the second to score three runs.

Sean Zehner scored on a passed ball right before Pirates’ catcher Josh Brooks knocked a two-run double to score Miles Davidson and Wilbert Johnson.

Fruitdale scored one run in the third inning.

In the fifth, the Eagles came back from a 4-2 deficit to score three runs and retake the lead.

Josh Godwin hit an RBI single to score Hunter Greathouse before Soles knocked a two-run double to score Colter Poole and Godwin to take a 5-4 lead heading into the sixth.

The Pirates (14-6) reclaimed their lead in the fifth, scoring three runs.

The Eagles’ final run of the 2009 season came on an RBI single off Davidson to score Godwin in the seventh inning.

Pleasant Home coach Bradley Stephens said his team had a lot of “jitters” in the first game.

“The first game I felt like we started off slow, but I also felt like we were trying to get those jitters out,” Stephens said. “I knew we were going to come back in (the second) game. It was either we were going to be beat again bad or we were going to get back to it. They got back to it.”

Davidson, who pitched 6.0 innings and allowed 12 hits, one walk, six runs and three strikeouts, earned the win for the Pirates.

Blake Herman took the loss for the Eagles, going 7.0 innings and allowing 10 hits, four walks, seven earned runs, one unearned run and striking out eight.

Stephens said the season overall was really good.

“Coming into this game, we had lost to one (Class) 1A team and other than that the rest of our losses were to a 2A or a 3A (school),” Stephens said. “We played Straughn five times and they have been in the top 10 and they are a really good team. So, that’s where our losses have been.

“It was a good season, but it just didn’t end the way we wanted it to,” he said.

The Eagles ended their season 7-10 and 4-0 in Class 1A, Area 3.