COLONIAL HEIGHTS, VA. – Another back and forth battle between the Peninsula Pilots (23-8) and Tri-City Chili Peppers (6-22) goes the way of the Pilots 13-12. 

In the 15th meeting between the two sides, the scoring got under away immediately with the two teams exchanging two solo homers each in the first inning. For the Chili Peppers, the solo home runs came from Wilson Galvan (South Carolina) and Logan Jarvis (Belmont), their fifth and seventh long balls respectively. 

The game then was sent to a 40 minute weather delay due to lightning around Shepherd Stadium. 

After the delay, both sides went scoreless in the second. Then the Pilots brought home a run in the top of the third inning to make it a 3-2 ballgame. 

Tri-City would answer though, starting with a big two out RBI single from Hunter Gilliam (Longwood) to tie the game at 3. Gilliam was followed by Tommy Crider (Belmont) blasting his second home run of the year over the left field wall to make it 5-3 Chili Peppers. 

The top of the fifth would see Peninsula drive home two runs and tie the game up 5 all. But with the offense clicking, Tri-City plated four more runs coming from a Pilots wild pitch, an RBI groundout from Carson Jones (Virginia Tech) and back-to-back RBI singles from Casey Harford (University of Tennessee at Martin) and Willie Havens (Elon). 

The scoring carried over into the sixth inning with the Pilots storming ahead with a six spot in the top half the inning. 

In the bottom of the inning, Jones returned to the plate and launched his first long ball of the summer and the three run shot put the Chili Peppers game in front, 12-11. 

The lead would last until the ninth with Peninsula scraping together two runs to bring the game to its 13-12 final score. 

The Chili Peppers will return to Shepherd tonight against the Holly Springs Salamanders with first pitch set for 7 p.m. For more information, check out chilipeppersbaseball.com, and follow the team on social media for all the latest news and updates.