The Pilots clinched the First-Half East Division title Saturday, securing their spot in the postseason with nothing to play for Sunday.
With that in mind, manager Hank Morgan rested a lot of his everyday starters and the Tobs jumped all over the opportunity to play against Peninsula’s No. 2 guys.
Peninsula (17-5) dropped its second consecutive game to Wilson (10-10) 12-0 as free bases and extra opportunities cost the Pilots early, snapping their four-game winning streak to end the first half of the season.
Things did not go smoothly for Pilots right-handed opener Nic Psimas from the very first batter, as the fourth pitch he threw was smacked to the gap for a leadoff double from left fielder James Arakawa.
After a passed ball moved Arakawa to third, he was knocked in on a 4-3 groundout giving center fielder Jared Carr his first RBI of the day.
Psimas labored through another inning of work, surrendering a one-out walk to catcher Griffin Everitt. On an attempted pickoff, Psimas misfired and the ball rattled around the railing down the right field line, allowing Everitt to go all the way to third, scoring one batter later on Arakawa’s sacrifice fly out.
The second run of the inning for the Tobs later scored on shortstop Gary Mattis’ RBI single to extend Wilson’s advantage to 3-0.
Psimas’ night ended after two innings, allowing three earned runs on four hits and four walks, striking out just two with two wild pitches.
Morgan turned to right-handed reliever Alex Hinton for an inning, but the Tobs added five more runs.
Two runs were pushed across on RBI singles from Arakawa and second baseman Drew DeVine, respectively. The other three were on another sacrifice fly out, a wild pitch and a passed ball.
In Hinton’s inning of work, he contributed four of the Pilots’ six wild pitches on the game.
St. Bonaventure redshirt freshman Tripp Breen was the next man for the job and he was the first Pilots hurler to put up a zero in the game in the fourth inning, allowing just a one-out walk to Everitt in the frame.
The fifth inning wasn’t as kind to the South Williamsport, Pennsylvania, native.
Carr led off with a groundball that squirted through a hole up the middle, scoring on the next pitch that Mattis stung to the right-center field billboards along the wall — his second run batted in on the night — extending Peninsula’s deficit to a deep 9-0.
A broken-bat groundout to shortstop and another bouncer to second base scored Mattis to close the book on Breen’s two-inning, two-run appearance.
Righty Clayton Gilmore came on in the sixth, walked Everitt with one out and surrendered his third long ball in as many innings on the season to put the nail in the coffin for the Pilots.
The Pilots start the second half of the season Monday at War Memorial Stadium where they will take on Wilson for the second time in as many days. First pitch is at 7 p.m. with gates opening at 5:30 p.m. as it will be Dollar Dog Night at the ballpark.