COLONIAL HEIGHTS — The Post 284 Pirates got off to a shaky start on Wednesday night, giving up six runs in the first four innings. However, as the old adage goes; it’s not how you start, but how you finish.

Hopewell’s Adam Duncan pitched five innings of solid relief and knocked in the go-ahead run in the fifth inning and Bradley Conner blasted two home runs to lead the homestanding pirates to a 12-7 victory over Midlothian Post 186.

“We just start slow most of the time,” Duncan said. “Defense picked it up real good in the last couple of innings. We hit the ball really well.”

Midlothian touched up Pirates starter William Cullen for six runs in the first four innings. However, down 6-2 in the bottom of the fourth, the Pirates went on a rally. With men and on second and third with no outs, Jacob Kelsey and Cullen hit back-to-back ground outs for RBIs to make it 6-4. Todd Tucker followed with a walk and then Ryan Moore tied the game with a blast over the left field fence, the second homer of the game for the Pirates, to tie the game 6-6.

With the game back in question, Duncan flexed his muscles on the mound. The Hopewell Blue Devil faced just two batters over the minimum and allowed only one hit over the next four innings. Meanwhile, the offense continued to heat up. Duncan cranked a double in the bottom of the fifth inning to bring in catcher Seth Wagner and was brought home two batters later by a Kelsey single. After an uneventful sixth inning, the Pirates bats woke back up in the seventh. With one out, Wagner and Duncan reached on back-to back singles. Bradley Conner then followed with his second home run of the day (the first came in the second inning), a three-run blast to bump the score to 11-6. Conner Kaufmann rounded out the Pirates scoring with an RBI single in the eighth inning.

With the lead in hand, Duncan got through the ninth inning to earn the win, but not before Midlothian could plate one more run. Duncan retired the first two batters, but then gave up back-to-back singles and threw a wild pitch that allowed a run to score. He retired the final battle on a lazy fly ball to right field.