BOSTON–On a hot and humid day in Boston, the Norwood Mets made the Pirates’ day even more miserable with an 19-6 beat down. Both teams struggled to field a serviceable lineup (each producing only 9 players), but in the end it was Mets succeeded getting to Pirates’ rookie pitcher Hank Butman.

Butman struggled to get ahead of hitters and when he was forced to throw strikes the Mets’ bats were ready (2 2/3 IP, 18 R, 14 ER). When the Mets weren’t crushing balls to all fields, the Pirates kicked the ball around the field. Errors were plenty, some low-lights included third baseman Jeff Francis’ best Bill Buckner impression and second baseman Walter Jacobson’s feeble attempt to turn a double play by rolling the throw to second.

Offensively, the Pirates hit the ball well, but the Mets’ advanced scouting paid off as they played each hitter perfectly. Jacobson managed to singled twice and drove in three runs. Eastwood Adare and Butman also chipped in with two hits in the loss, while catcher Dan Gadbois hung tough through several bumps and bruises to play a great game behind the plate.

The Pirates day started rather auspiciously with a run in the top of the first, but the Mets answered with six in the bottom half of the inning. From there on, the day was pretty much a lost cause.

The loss brings the Pirates’ record to 7-3. They’ll look to rebound July 18th against the Mariners.

Game notes: Today’s game marked the first time this season that the Pirates dressed the minimum 9 players. Francis pitched 1 1/3 innings of relief work, marking his first pitching appearance of the season. Dan “Lil’ General” Bertrand was recognized by Guinness Book of World Records for having the world’s worst smelling jersey. It was reported that the stench caused Rita Rosenbloom to vomit at her home in Quincy, MA.

HYDE PARK, Mass–In a hard fought battle with the defending ECABL champs, the Norwood Mets eked out a 3-2 win in extra innings against the Pirates.

On a warm, summer day both teams came together for a rematch of the 2009 championship. The Mets jumped out to a 2-0 lead by scoring a single run in the first and fourth inning. Once again, it appeared the Pirates were on the way to wasting a solid pitching performance. However, the Pirates finally pulled square in the contest thanks to a game-tying, two-run single by Dan Segel in the bottom of the seventh.

Pirates’ pitcher Gino Beniamino pitched brilliantly, battling through 10 2/3 innings and 140 pitches. Beniamino was the hard-luck loser, giving up 3 runs, none of which were earned. He scattered four hits while walking one and striking out nine Mets. The defense did absolutely nothing to support him as they recorded 7 errors behind Beniamino with Ben Lupatkin and Jeff Francis accounting for two respectively. Offensively, Segel led the charge going 2 for 4, while Eastwood Adare, Jeff Francis, and Raj Bhol all notched one hit.

The hard-luck loss ended the Pirates’ undefeated season and brought their record to 3-1.

Hyde Park, Mass — The Pirates came into Sunday with a perfect record against the team formerly known as the Cubs. They finished Sunday with the same sterling record on the strength of 9-0 win on the arm of Gino Beniamino.

In what will forever be referred to as Beniamino’s coming out party, the Pirates’ stud pitcher threw a complete-game three hitter while walking only one and striking out 15. Beniamino was economical, throwing 75 percent strikes and getting ahead of nearly every batter. His fastball was electric, and his curve had Giants looking like knee-buckling dwarfs.

“What can I say?” said Beniamino. “I was on my game today. I had control of all my pitches. My fastball ran, my curve bit, and my changeup dipped. Additionally, my catcher, Walter Jacobson, was absolutely brilliant. I’ve never seen someone with the skill, mental makeup and physical prowess like Jacobson. We were clearly on the same page from pitch one. Without him, I probably would have gotten shelled.”

Offensively, the Pirates struck early and often on their way to victory. Designated hitter Paul Benson contributed two hits while knocking in three. Rookie Dan Rivkin collected three hits with an RBI and a run scored. Second baseman Jay Kreisberg was a menace on the bases swiping two bags and scoring thrice. Finally, first baseman Jeff Francis added to his career-leading RBI tally when he deposited a single into the gap in the bottom of the sixth.

Notes: This marked the first, and probably last, game of the season where the Pirates were perfect defensively.

Hyde Park, Mass — After coming frustratingly close to beating the Mets in the championship game a year ago, the Pirates maintained a steely resolve and hoped for a better outcome. In what may eventually be the first bit of revenge for the Pirates against the Norwood Mets, the PPoP have a 4-3 lead on the Mets in the sixth inning.

With ominous skies overhead, the Pirates sent new pitcher Dan Rivkin to the mound against the team their 2009 run. Rivkin navigated a rough first inning that appeared to be the same old story for the Pirates, going down early to one of the best teams in the league.

This time, however, they were able to string some hits together and push across four runs in the fourth inning to take the game back. Jeff Francis, Max Bogaert, and Ben Lupatkin all chipped in with some RBIs to give the Pirates a lead they would not relinquish.

Rivkin, meanwhile, found his bearings on the hill and kept the Mets off the bases and off the scoreboard until the sixth inning.

Unfortunately, before the bottom of the sixth could get going, torrential rain and lightning rolled through, which resulted in the umpires calling the game.

“We will see how this one pans out,” Said Manager Francis. “We will probably take this as a win, since it is an official game. But we will see if it can be finished later.”

Hyde Park, Mass — It took several tries and some perseverance, but the Parkway Pirates finally started the 2010 campaign, beating the Needham Phillies 7-4.

After a couple of cancellations, the players were eager to get out for some baseball. Unfortunately, the lights at Kelley Field were not as anxious to participate. After several phone calls and Paul Benson warming up in pitch black, the lights came on and the call was to “Play ball.”

The Phillies, however, were the team off on the right foot, taking a second inning lead 3-1. Then the lights went out again.

“I think the starts and stops slowed us down a little,” said Manager Jeff Francis. “Once we got into a rhythm, we were able to make things happen.”

Making things happen was not in the plans of Phillies starter Jonah Weinhardt, who kept hitters off balance with an assortment of off-speed pitches.

“That guy always seems to give us trouble,” said Francis. “First game of the season, we just weren’t patient enough.”

Heading into the seventh inning, it looked as though the Phillies would take game one of the season. Down 3-1 in the last inning without much of a fight, the Pirates finally mounted a rally.

Dan Rivkin sparked the comeback with a leadoff single. Gino Beniamino followed with a single of his own. Newcomer Raj Bhol moved the runners along with ground out to put the tying runs in place. Then pitcher Paul Benson came to the plate with a chance to make his hard work on the mound pay off.

“I was just looking for something I could put in play,” said Benson. “I got something up and put a good swing on it.”

The good swing was a ringing double into the gap. A throwing error moved him to third where Dan Segel immediately brought him in with a sacrifice fly. Followed by Jay Kreisberg and Eastwood Adare tacking on some key insurance runs.

Now with a 7-3 lead, Benson made the last inning interesting, loading the bases and surrendering a run before Beniamino went full stretch up the middle to save the game.

“It was a good way to end the game,” said Francis. “One game in the books, on to the next.”

Conventional wisdom says it is good to finish strong and carry that momentum into the playoffs. The Pirates, on the other hand, decided to backpedal into the postseason by dropping both ends of a day-night doubleheader to the Mets, losing game two 9-4.

After blowout loss in game one, the Pirates came out strong taking a quick 2-0 lead in the first inning. Ace Paul Benson managed to dodge traffic for three innings. In the fourth, the Mets finally capitalized on some sloppy PPoP defense to jump out to a 5-2 lead.

“It is our Achilles’ heel all year,” said coach Walter Jacobson. “If you look at our losses, they usually include moments of abysmal defense.”

Still, the Pirates were not about to go down to the champs without a fight. In the bottom of the fourth inning, they managed to push across two runs of their own thanks to a couple of errors by the Mets.

“We never quit,” said shortstop Gino Beniamino. “Everyone on this team wants to win. As long as we have at bats in the game, we will keep coming.”

Despite their grit, the PPoP would get no closer than 5-4. The Mets would string some hits together in the sixth and seventh, pushing their lead to 9-4.

“It was a tough day all around,” said Max Bogaert. “I thought we played well at times. It certainly gives us hope for the playoffs. If we can string seven strong innings together, we can compete with anyone in this league.”

The Pirates open up the playoffs at Kelley Field against the Braintree Red Sox.

On the strength of three straight wins against the two teams ahead of them in the standings, the Pirates came into a doubleheader against the Mets with a little swagger. The Mets, however, showed the PPoP and their fans why they are still the team to beat in the ECABL.

Behind a solid performance by Rich Fuller, the Mets outhit, outpitched and pretty much outclassed the Pirates en route to a 15-3 mercy-rule beating.

Pirates pitcher Kevin Flight did his best, but with an inadequate defense and .400 hitters throughout the lineup, the Mets strolled to an easy win on this brutally hot afternoon.

The lone bright spot for the Pirates was a two-run dinger by Jeff Francis to deep center field. But any hopes that this would somehow spur a PPoP comeback were quickly dashed — almost as quickly as the bench’s weak attempt to freeze out their clean-up man.

“I guess that is the kind of thing you do to the guy carrying the load all season,” said Francis. “I don’t know. I just figured they were too tired from getting their butts kicked around the field all day.”

In the end, no amount of hi-jinks, tomfoolery or ballyhoo could reverse the reality of the situation. All the Pirates could do was hope for a little redemption in game two.

One thing is true about all teams in the ECABL: They love playing baseball. The Pirates showed this by not only playing a double header on Sunday, but taking both games into extra innings to get the job done. This time, they beat the Mariners 6-5 in nine innings.

On the heels of an inspiring come-from-behind win against the Phillies earlier in the day, the Pirates jumped out to a quick 4-o lead on the strength of the hot bats of Eastwood Adare, Jeff Francis and Cliff Goodband.

Unfortunately, the adrenaline rush wore off as they waltzed through the next seven innings without much of fight. Meanwhile, the Mariners were able to scrape a few runs here and there off starter Paul Benson with the help of some sloppy defense.

“We came out strong,” said Walter Jacobson. “I think fatigued crept in a little in the middle of the game. We just weren’t crisp. We lost our focus a little.”

Fortunately, Benson was strong enough to keep the Mariners at bay until the eighth inning when the Mariners were able to manufacture a run with the help of a walk, an error and a sacrifice fly. However, the PPoP made some Kelley Field magic of their own in the bottom half of the inning by finding all the divots in the infield.

“This field can be tough,” said Max Bogaert, who finished the day with two hits and few RBIs. “If you put the ball on the ground, well, there isn’t a true hop on this field.”

In the bottom of the ninth, with two outs and a man on first, the Pirates had the meat of their order coming up. Bogaert found one of those famous infield lips for a single. Francis followed with a rip. The bases were loaded for Goodband.

Like in the second game of the season, Goodband laced the first pitch he saw into left field bringing home Adare, ending a long day of baseball with another classic walk-off win.

“Today was exhausting,” said Goodband. “It has been an up-and-down season for me. I am just glad I could come through today.”

“Our three-four-five guys may clog the bases,” said Jacobson, “but they are going to put at-bats on you all day. We always feel good with those guys at the plate. I am just glad I didn’t have to step to the plate in that situation. I mean, the Mariners should be glad.”