Mariners second baseman Cole Young sat in the visitors' dugout a little more than two hours before the start of Tuesday night’s series opener against the Pirates in his hometown, reminiscing with reporters about his childhood and watching baseball at PNC Park. Young recalled rushing to the outfield seats as soon as the gates opened so he could try to catch batting practice home runs. He recalled seeing the Pirates defeat the Reds in the 2013 National League Wild Card Game. And he shouted out former Pirates stars Andrew McCutchen and Neil Walker -- the color commentator on the Pirates’ telecast -- as his favorite players. And then, Young got to play his first game at PNC Park. “This is really cool to be playing here,” Young said with a smile as he bounded up the dugout steps to the field for batting practice. The night would become even cooler for Young in the seventh inning when he pulled a two-run home run into the right-field stands off Mitch Keller to put the Mariners up by a run and power their 3-2 win. The home run was the seventh of the season for the 22-year-old, who is in his second MLB season. “That was really special,” Young said. “I had my family here, my friends here. You want to play well when playing in your hometown." Oddly enough, Young wasn’t even thinking about a home run in a situation where the Mariners trailed by one run with a man on second base and no outs. “ I just wanted to hit a ground ball to the right side of the infield, move the runner over to third base,” Young said. “That’s my focus there, and I was fortunate enough to get a pitch I could drive out of the park.”
