21-1

The Pittsburgh Pirates suffered a historical loss to Manatee Community College Lancers two years ago. Last year they bounced back with a 6-1 victory, but you could tell that that '09 loss was still on their mind (despite the fact that every single player that played in the game today was not a part of the '09 game). The Pirates scored 21 runs in 6 innings of batting and defeated the newly named State College of Florida Manatees in merciless fashion.

Here's the box score, courtesy of mlb.com (click to view full size):

There's nothing you can take from a game against a college team, but it was fun to see the Pirates score a lot of runs. The biggest stories were Garrett Atkins homering, as he begins to make an early case for a roster spot on Opening Day, and Steven Pearce driving in 4 runs, as he also tries to impress the coaches enough to earn a bench spot in April. We'll keep a close eye on those two guys for the rest of the spring.

The Pirates take the field again tomorrow in Port Charlotte Florida as they take on the Tampa Bay Rays in their first grapefruit league game. The game is at 1:05, and you can listen to it on 104.7 WPGB-FM if you are in Pittsburgh, or listen to the game through mlb.com's radio plug-in.