Old faces, same places.

Another day at the office for Tyler McDonald. 

The righty had a shaky start in the first, however. After giving up a leadoff baserunner, McDonald got some help from his defense when Johnny Pacheco threw out Mason King trying to steal second base. 

There would be no score until the bottom of the second, when Alex Gonzales walked with two outs and Max Modeste quickly followed with an RBI double down the right field line. This made it 1-0. 

The Trappers increased their lead to 5-0 in the fourth on a two run homer by Pacheco. The righty uncorked the first pitch over the right field wall, and from there, it was all Pierre pitching. 

Between the second and sixth innings, McDonald, who pitched for the Trappers in 2018, struck out 12 of 15 batters he faced en route to a 16 strikeout performance. 16 is now the league high for strikeouts in a single game. 

In the 5th, Nick Grossman led off and wasted little time uncorking his second homer of 2019 to give the Trappers a half a dozen, 6-0, essentially putting the game out of reach and yanking Hub City starter Landon Cody. 

The Hotshots wouldn't go down without a fight, however. With two outs in the seventh, DH Drew Gallagos ripped a 2-2 pitch into right, over the fence, pulling the visitors to 6-2, their only tallies of the game.

This eliminated the shutout for McDonald, but it didn't matter, as Tyler relinquished nearly every batter he faced via the K, and Pierre got back to .500 with the 6-2 win. The Trappers now stand just 1.5 games back of Souris Valley for the second half playoff spot after the Sabre Dogs fell to Fremont. 

WP: McDonald (1-0)    LP: Cody (3-5)

Next Game: vs Hub City (Wednesday @ 7:05)