GEORGETOWN, TEXAS - Pirate head baseball coach JC Bunch coached his first season for Southwestern in the spring of 2018. In just his second season in 2019, Coach Bunch brought the Pirates their first winning record since 2008, and he has since brought the Pirates to two SCAC tournament appearances in 2019 and 2021. Going on his sixth season with the Pirates, Coach Bunch has now compiled 100 wins for the program in that short amount of time.

In 2023, Coach Bunch has the Pirates on track for potentially another winning record. Southwestern baseball has been hot as of late, running through teams to a 12-4 record just before they hit the meat of conference play. 

It would take extra baseball, ten innings, for Coach Bunch and the Pirates to secure his 100th win against the Concordia Tornados on Tuesday night. Southwestern entered the game with an 11-4 record coming off their first conference series matchup against the University of Dallas Crusaders. The Pirates battled the Tornados one day after they came back from their trip to Irving, and at the start of the game, it looked as if the Pirates weren't phased by the travel. 

The Pirates shot out to a 5-0 lead by the bottom of the fourth inning, scoring two runs in the second and third innings and one in the fourth. By the bottom of the sixth inning, Jacob Tanner already had three RBIs, helping the Pirates to take a 7-1 lead by the top of the seventh, and it seemed as if the Pirates were going to run away with the game. 

But in the bottom of the eighth, the Tornados stormed back with a six-run inning to tie the game up at 7-7 heading into the ninth. A scoreless ninth inning would bring the Pirates up to the plate in the tenth. Matthew Escamilla singled to center field with two outs, bringing Christian Melillo up to bat with the go-ahead run in scoring position. Melillo drove in Escamilla on a double to center field, giving the Pirates an 8-7 to hold on to in the bottom of the tenth.

The Tornados gave the Pirates no trouble, with Pitcher Tres Organ striking out the last two batters of the game. Concordia went three up, three down in the final inning, and Coach Bunch walked out of Gardner-Boggs Field with his century-mark win. 

The Pirates return to Rockwell Family Field to resume conference play against the St. Thomas Celts on Friday, March 24th, at 6:00 PM.