GROVE CITY \u2014 Grove City got a sneak peak at a potential playoff foe Monday afternoon.<\/p>\n
Coming off four straight victories, the Eagles were able to keep things interesting for six innings before a seventh-inning grand slam slammed the door shut on their hopes of a comeback victory in a 9-0 setback to Gen. McLane in District 10 inter-region action at Forese Field.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t our best outing,\u201d Grove City coach Brandon Jones said. \u201cWe knew we\u2019d be facing a quality baseball team and a team we could potentially face in the playoffs. I think our mindset was good and we were ready for the challenge, but our bats were a little cold and we weren\u2019t able to recover.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Lancers (3-0) were coming off a week that saw them outscore Sodus (NY) and Cameron (WV) 32-1.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven though the scoreboard said it was 9-0, I think if we tighten a few things up it could\u2019ve been a closer ballgame,\u201d Jones said. \u201cIt\u2019s early in the season and this is a great way to see where we stand right now and what we need to work on to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Against Gen. McLane\u2019s potent lineup, Grove City (4-2) could ill afford any hiccups Monday afternoon and plenty arose over the game\u2019s first three innings. With a pair of Eagles hurlers yielding a combined four hits and four free passes in the early going, their defense couldn\u2019t pick up the slack for their teammates with three errors and allowing the Lancers take a 4-0 lead.<\/p>\n
\u201cLittle things make the biggest difference,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe weren\u2019t throwing strikes and were giving up free bases when you add that to fielding blunders, it can snowball on you pretty quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n
With McLane scoring two runs in the first and single runs in the second and third innings, the Eagles\u2019 offense struggled to gain any traction against McLane left-handed starter Kellen Chelton \u2013 who yielded just three hits and struck out eight in six innings.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the bats aren\u2019t productive, it can make for a long day,\u201d Jones said. \u201cHe did a great job of keeping us off-balance. He had off-speed pitches he could throw for strikes. He did his job. We could\u2019ve done a better job with some of our at-bats, but it\u2019s still early and that\u2019s something we can work on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Already down 4-0 and being no-hit, Apollo Como opened the Grove City fourth with a walk and advanced to second when Layne Rider broke up Chelton\u2019s no-hit bid with a hard-hit grounder to second base, but three consecutive strikeouts ended the threat.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a momentum killer,\u201d Jones said. \u201cThe bottom of the lineup needs to find ways to be more productive and find ways to get on base.\u201d<\/p>\n
After Gen. McLane plated its fifth run in the fifth inning, the Eagles\u2019 offense appeared on the verge of heating up with a little one-out magic. Rider legged out an infield single and appeared to score on a Gavin Purdy triple to left-center field, but the game\u2019s officials ruled the ball rolled under the fence for a ground-rule double and sending Rider back to third base. Chelton was able to get out of the jam with back-to-back outs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had guys in scoring position with less than two outs (after Purdy\u2019s double),\u201d Jones said. \u201cWe have to be more productive in the box and put the ball in play.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t give up strike outs. We have to put it in play and make them make plays.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the seventh, Purdy had no such luck with all-state shortstop Jackson Kiser turned on a 3-2 offering, sending into the trees outside of the left-field fence.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kid can hit the baseball and props to him for putting a good swing on that ball,\u201d Jones said. \u201cWith the bases loaded and a full count, Gavin was just trying to put the ball over the plate and the kid jumped on it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Notes: Gen. McLane had 10 hits off five Grove City pitchers and were led by Kiser \u2013 who was a double shy of a cycle \u2013 and Jordan Cannon (three singles). \u2026 Six of the eight General McLane runners left on base were in scoring position. \u2026 The Eagles only had three errors. \u2026 Grove City stranded seven baserunners. \u2026 Grove City struck out nine times, while accepting five free passes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"GROVE CITY \u2014 Grove City got a sneak peak at a potential playoff foe Monday afternoon. Coming off…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":669187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2288],"tags":[2315,2309,2336,5,2316,2314,2317,2313,2340,2325,2337,2331,2333,2334,19,2310,2328,2304,2318,2308,2319,4,2305,2303,3519,8482,2307,2343,2321,185,2350,2338,2311,2312,1039],"class_list":{"0":"post-669186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb-postseason","8":"tag-athletic-sports","9":"tag-ball-and-bat-games","10":"tag-ball-games","11":"tag-baseball","12":"tag-baseball-competitions","13":"tag-baseball-finals","14":"tag-baseball-games","15":"tag-baseball-playoffs-and-champions","16":"tag-baseball-positions","17":"tag-baseball-teams","18":"tag-batted-ball","19":"tag-batting-order-baseball","20":"tag-grass-field-surfaces","21":"tag-lawn-games","22":"tag-major-league-baseball","23":"tag-major-league-baseball-competitions","24":"tag-major-league-baseball-playoffs","25":"tag-major-league-baseball-postseason","26":"tag-major-league-baseball-seasons","27":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams","28":"tag-major-league-baseball-teams-seasons","29":"tag-mlb","30":"tag-mlb-playoffs","31":"tag-mlb-postseason","32":"tag-no-hitter","33":"tag-out-baseball","34":"tag-outdoor-sports","35":"tag-positions-team-sports","36":"tag-seasons-in-baseball","37":"tag-sports","38":"tag-strikeout","39":"tag-team-activities","40":"tag-team-sports","41":"tag-turf-sports","42":"tag-world-series"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=669186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/669186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/669187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=669186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=669186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=669186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}