The Wandering Disciple

Bradenton, Florida: The Gulf Coast Pirates shut-out the Gulf Coast Phillies 3-0 on Saturday at Pirate City. Both clubs dueled in a shut-out until the bottom of the sixth inning when the Pirates struck for two runs. Elvys Gonzalez drew a walk to lead off then inning. Gift Ngoepe then reached on an error to put a second runner on the base path. Gerlis Rodriguez laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners into scoring position. Andrew Walker drove home the first run with an RBI double to score Gonzalez. Ngoepe later scored on a sacrifice fly by Rogelios Noris and the Pirates took a 2-0 lead. The Pirates added an insurance run in the seventh inning. Melvin De La Cruz led off the inning with a walk. De La Cruz advanced to second on a stolen base and then to third on a sac bunt by Elvys Gonzalez. Gift Ngoepe followed with a ground ball to first that scored De La Cruz and gave the Pirates the 3-0 margin of victory. Brad Clapp picked up the win and Diomedes Garcia the save fo...

Bradenton, Florida: The Gulf Coast League Pirates are the rookie affiliate of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The GCL Pirates are in the northern division of the Gulf Coast League. The club was founded in 1978. They are a three time division champion having won the division title in 2003, 2003 and 2008. The GCL Pirates play there games at Pirate City, the spring training home of the Pittsburgh Pirates in Bradenton, Florida. Click on the photo above to view the GCL Pirates photo gallery.

Bradenton, Florida: The GCL Pirates defeated the GCL Orioles 7-2 on Saturday afternoon at Pirate City. The Pirates used a five run fifth inning to help secure the win. The Orioles took the lead in the second inning. Edinho Meyer led off the inning with a solo home run to give them a 1-0 lead. But the Pirates battled back to take the lead in the fourth. Jesus Aguilera drove home two runs with a single to right to score Wes Freemand and Andury Acevedo to give them a 2-1 lead. The Pirates took a commanding lead an inning later by crossing five runs across the plate. The inning was highlighted by a two run triple by Acevedo to help them take a 7-1 lead. The Orioles would push across another run in the sixth. Xavier Avery hit a triple to center then later scored on a ground ball by Luis Ramirez. But they failed to produce any more runs and took a 7-2 loss. Click on the photo above to view the Orioles/Pirates photo gallery.

Bradenton, Florida: Pirate City in Bradenton is the spring training home of the Pittsburgh Pirates as well as the base for the Pirate’s Florida operations. It is also the home to the Gulf Coast League Pirates during the summer. The facility received a major facelift in 1993. The grounds include five practice fields, batting cages and even a three story building with dorms and offices. It is the southern home of the Pirates. The Pirates keep the facility busy all year round with major and minor league baseball activity. But it is also available for rent for amateur events as well as corporate events.