What can be said is that it was just a Highline Pirates baseball game that simply had what pop artist Daniel Powter speaks of clearly in his chartbuster song:

"A bad day."

The Pirates had a bad day, that's all. These Pirates are a top-ranked team in the state in the 3A newspaper baseball polls.

Putting things in a good perspective, the Pirates lost a non-league game to a Seamount South foe, Bonney Lake, 9-7. It was a game the purple and gold could have won ,and despite trailing by six runs entering the sixth inning, despite starting a non-varsity pitcher on the mound, despite throwing consecutive non-starters after that, in action at Mosier Field Wednesday.

The Pirates are now 11-2 overall, just about the best record in the state, and these boys of spring boast an 8-1 league record. Bonney Lake is not even a .500 team in the other league, 2-4, so the Pirates perhaps overlooked the Panthers. Also, it's spring break for area high schools, so practices are a bit more relaxed.

"Yeah, we had a bad game," said Dave Larson, the Pirates coach. "But we put strictly JV pitchers out there and they (Bonney Lake) ripped us. Bonney Lake is a good club. But just one more clutch hit and it would have been another big comeback."

Yeah, and let's not erase from memory that the Pirates came back to beat the Mount Rainier Rams April 5 in a game with fans packing both sides of the Mosier stands to the gills. The Pirates had rallied dramatically in that first-place mid-season momentum game, from being 4-3 down to win going away 7-4 behind a four-run sixth inning. That was a game for first place. It was a great comeback to win the battle to lead the Seamount King outright.

A bad day.

So, what's this Bonney Lake game rank as far as importance is concerned is a good question.

"How we come back from a loss is the big thing; how we play against Hazen is important," said Ben Guidos, a captain who had three RBI and was hit by a pitch in his other at-bat. Hazen was the Pirates' next game, played Monday, April 17, that Guidos spoke of.

"We came out kind of lackadaisical against Bonney Lake," said Guidos, who is a Pirates team captain, along with Lucas Shaw. The Pirates were still in the game at 5-0 because they were up to doing some digging and made it a 5-3 ballgame in the bottom of the third inning as Daniel Dutton singled up the middle to start things off. Brendan Gardner-Young duplicated that exact hit placement to put runners at first and second bases. Then, on a hit-and-run, the next batter struck out but was going for the double play on Gardner-Young stealing second and the ball was thrown on a hop by the Panthers' shortstop and skipped by the glove into center field and Dutton scored, 5-1.

Next up at the plate, Guidos, the Pirates' No. 4 hitter and leading average hitter on the team, who pulled the ball into the right field corner for a stand-up double and Gardner-Young wheeled around third and home, 5-2.

Then Shaw shot the ball up the middle and Guidos scored and the fans calling themselves the "Rat Pack' were on spring break, too, but their chatter really helped the Pirates in that third inning that ended with the score at 5-3, Panthers.

Then came the fourth and the Panthers continued to prove they came to play since jumping to an early lead, scoring a run after a first single. Then, after a third hitter singled in the inning for them, it was a nice double play from Macey to Guidos to end the inning. That was the highlight of the pitching as Chris Graham induced that good play.

But the hitters did not get runs back after that for the Pirates and the Panthers scored two runs on two singles and an error where the outfielder did not get a good jump on the ball. Left field also dropped a shallow shot right before that.

"That's what hurt us, - errors," said David Macey, who let one get under his mitt, a hot shot but playable, in the fourth and he admitted a 'tag at second base' was also something that was bad by him.

But again things are OK. The Pirates showed heart to comback in the third and they weren't done yet. Now comes the bottom of the sixth. After the Panthers had scored two more runs on the outfield errors aforementioned, to lead, 9-3, it was the Pirates bleeding purple.

Interestingly, an inning after the coach's pep talk the Pirates being behind 9-3 after the top of the fifth, it was the non-best hitters that started to get a little bit of a rally going in the bottom of the sixth.

First was David Wagner, who had a good game in right field turning a couple foul balls into outs from hits astray of the boundary lines by Panthers hitters.

Wagner's ball was hit so the shortstop had to make a tough play and made a low throw that allowed Wagner to then get to second base on a Jeremy Evans, the No. 6 hitter in the order, single. With runners at first and second, Graham collected an RBI single to make it a 9-4 ballgame.

Gardner-Young collected his second hit of the game next, an RBI single, and it was 9-5, Panthers.

David Macey then slapped the ball up the middle and it was 9-7 because two runs scored on that bit of offense. Guidos was next, with a blooper that found shallow outfield. Two runners were on for the next hitter, with two outs, and on second and third base. But that hitter popped out and left two runners in scoring position and the comeback was left for the bottom of the seventh inning.

A strikeout, pop out and a ground out took care of any Pirates comeback thinking in the last frame.

But it's all good. The Pirates still are atop the Seamount King Division and it was a non-league game and it was spring break and next week is what really matters, with Hazen, Monday and being at Tyee at 3:30,Wednesday.

"We never get too high about a win nor too low about a loss," said Larson. "How we come back from a loss is what counts."