Tradewater summary: When your highlight of the night becomes a two out strikeout by your everyday first sacker, then you know it's been a rough evening.  But that's exactly the case for the Pirates, who never led Marion, and lost a crucial early season contest to the league leading Bobcats, by the count of 6-3.  By the way, the strikeout by the first sacker, Etsell, was not with bat in hand, but instead, Etsell on the hill, relieving middleman Nic McCowin, with two outs in the top of the 9th, after Marion saw three unearned runs cross the plate, and increase their 3-1 lead, to a comfortable 6-1 margin.  Kyle Thomas started, and pitched admirably, but saw his mates produce virtually nothing at the plate off Marion starter Josh Anders.  And to complicate matters, two Buc runners got picked off at first in the contest.  McCowin entered for Thomas, and gutted out two innings, but ran into major trouble in the 9th.  Not to worry.  Etsell traded gloves, took the mound, and proceeded to strike out the final batter in the top of the 9th.  The Pirates got to Szathmary a bit in the bottom of nine, but all to late, and the Buccos sink to 5-7, while Marion sails away from Riverside with another win.  The two squads do battle at Marion, on Saturday evening. 

Marion summary:  The Bobcats gained ground on the entire league once again with a 6-3 victory Friday at Riverside Park in Dawson Springs. The win over the Pirates was the third in a row for Marion (9-3, 10-3 overall) and the seventh in the last eight contests. The team's last loss came in the tail end of a double header last Sunday against the Tradewater squad in the same setting.  Because Owensboro and Fulton were rained out, Marion picked up a half game on the second- and fourth-place teams, respectively. Owensboro (5-5) is three games out, Tradewater drops to two games below .500 and four behind Marion at 5-7 and Fulton, whose last two contests were called due to Mother Nature, stands five games out in last place at 3-7