REDDING – The Mt. Shasta Bears notched a win today in their second game of the Easter Classic Baseball tournament held at Big League Dreams, beating the Wheatland Pirates 6-5, in dramatic fashion.

The Bears put a pair of runs on the board in the first inning courtesy of a couple of walks, a couple of steals, and a couple of Pirate errors. Wheatland used a hit, a steal, and a passed ball to make the score 2-1 in favor of the Bears after one full inning.

All three Bear batters struck out in the top of the second inning—two swinging, and one looking. Wheatland looked like they might start to run away with the game in the bottom half of the inning, when they barely broke a sweat to put up four runs, and take the lead 5-2.

Mt. Shasta, however, wasn’t quite ready to barbeque. After the first batter struck out leading off the top of the third, back-to-back doubles by Erik Acord and Erik Thelander made it 5-3. In the bottom half of the inning, Bear pitcher Colin Waterman began taking control, mowing down the first two batters via the strikeout.

He walked the third batter, and gave up a bloop single into center-field. But, the Wheatland base-runner got a little greedy and tried to go from first to third on the hit. Then, it was center-fielder Klayton Davis’ turn to play lawnmower. Davis fired the ball to Bear third baseman Trent Hough, who applied the rally-killing tag.

Waterman and his Bear teammates sent the Pirates back to the pine 1-2-3, in both the fourth and fifth innings. The Bears had a golden opportunity in the fourth inning, when Davis doubled and was sacrificed to third by Andrew Campbell. However, a blown squeeze play erased the opportunity to pick up a run. Mt. Shasta also failed to score in the fifth inning, and the Pirates continued to lead 5-3, going into the top of the sixth inning.

In the sixth, the first Bear batter grounded out. Then, Matt Houston doubled. Davis reached on an error and went to second on the bad throw. Houston attempted to score on the throw, but was tagged out at home. With two down, and Davis on second base, Campbell reached on an error, and Davis scored to make it 5-4. Campbell stole second base. Ben Pierce walked to put Bears on first and second. Mike Manfredi singled to drive in Campbell, tying the game 5-5. Pierce went to third on the throw home, and then scored when the Pirates over threw third base, giving the Bears the lead 6-5.

In the bottom half of the inning, the first Pirate grounded out, but the next batter singled. Waterman caught a Pirate looking for the second out. The Pirate base runner stole second base, and attempted to go to third on a bad throw by the Bears’ catcher. Davis picked up the ball in center field and nailed the runner at third base for the final out, of the sixth inning.

The Bears went quietly in the top of the seventh inning, and it was time for Mt. Shasta to play defense. As the Bears were taking the field, the Mt. Shasta coach, Chris Hanson, told Waterman and a relief pitcher that if a Pirate reached base, the relief pitcher needed to be ready to go in.

Waterman fanned the first Pirate batter. The second Pirate grounded out to first base. A walk by Waterman made it decision time. Coach Hanson went to the mound and appeared ready to pull Waterman, but returned to the dugout, leaving his freshman starter on the mound. The decision turned out to be the right one, as the next Pirate grounded out to end the game, with a final of 6-5.

Following the game, Waterman revealed the conversation on the mound with his coach.

“He (Coach Hanson) said, ‘Do you want this bad enough.’ And, I said yeah. I just want to win this game,” said Waterman.

After allowing five runs in the first two innings, Waterman and the Bears shut out the Pirates for the last five innings.

Thelander led the Bears’ offense, going 1-3, with a walk, a double, a run, an RBI, and a steal. Acord went 2-4, with a double, a run, and a steal. Davis was 1-3 with a run. Manfredi went 1-1 with an RBI. Waterman pitched seven innings, giving up five runs, five hits, and four walks, while striking out six, and hitting a batter.

Mt. Shasta lost the first game of the tournament to Corning 10-1. The Bears are 3-9 this season and are scheduled to play Colusa at 10:30 and Northgate at 3:30 on Thursday, at Big League Dreams.