Despite hitting the ball hard in his first two at-bats, Ottawa junior catcher Logan Cottingham had nothing to show for it in Tuesday’s game against Plano.

His fortunes changed in the sixth.

Cottingham hammered a 1-1 fastball through a drawn-in infield and into right field for a two-run single to snap a tie game, and the Pirates eventually earned a come-from-behind, 8-5 victory over the Reapers at King Field in Ottawa.

“My first two at-bats, that’s just baseball sometimes,” Cottingham said. “To be honest, I had the same approach I try to have in every at-bat. I just wanted to make sure I hit my pitch.

“That was a situation where you want to come through so bad, but you also have to stay within yourself and stay calm. It’s about having trust that the things you’ve worked on will take over.”

Down 4-3 heading to the sixth, the first three Pirates batters reached on errors with Justin Bishop (1 IP, 2 H, 5 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K) on in relief, the latter two on sacrifice attempts. Then after a passed ball tied the game, Cottingham gave the hosts a 6-4 lead.

Contreras added an RBI single and Colt Bryson a run-scoring ground out to make it 8-4.

“This is a very young team, especially in the infield, and we’ve had some of the mental lapses already this season like we had there in the sixth,” Plano coach Tyler Mulligan said, his team now 0-2-1. ”We put ourselves in a position to win, but we just made too many physical mistakes, and they added up. I feel like we beat ourselves today, but we play again right away [Wednesday] and hopefully can learn from some of the mistakes we made today.

“Jackson gave us a very solid five innings, and Justin came in and threw strikes and made them hit ground balls. I feel like we have a pitching staff that is going to be pretty good as the season goes along. We have five guys that are really going to compete against each other all season to see who gets to pitch those big games for us.

“It’s a good problem to have.”

Plano finished the scoring in the seventh, as Nunez reached on an error and eventually score on a wild pitch.

“Last Friday at Minooka we struck out 13 or 14 times and didn’t have anywhere near the two-strike approach we need to have,” Ericson said, his squad now 3-1-1. “We talked about that and today really did a good job of not only being patient, but really focusing on putting the ball in play with two strikes.

“There in the sixth, we took advantage of a few mistakes, but we also got those bunts down to make Plano make plays.”

Maverick Burress picked up the win in relief, going the final three innings, striking out four and retiring nine of the 11 batters he faced.

“Both George and Maverick really competed on the mound for us,” Ericson said. “They did a good job of filling the strike zone and did a great job of mixing things up. Our pitching is going to have to carry us a little until the bats fully come around.”

Ottawa took a two-run lead in the first as leadoff man Rizon Contreras reached on an infield single off Plano starter Jackson Gates (5 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 1 K) and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Brendyn Fuchs. Adam Swanson also scored after walk, two stolen bases and throwing error.

Plano cut the lead in half in the third on doubles by Nathan Tunt and Eric Nunez off Ottawa starter George Shumway (4 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 K). The visitors then took a 4-2 lead in the fourth when Tunt drove in Braylon Schmidt, who had smacked a one-out single, Sean Garton drove in a run with a ground out, and Nunez singled home Tunt.

Plano is right back in action on Wednesday hosting Reed-Custer.

Ottawa is scheduled to host Pontiac on Thursday.