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Grand Lake's Luke Wildes (17) is greeted by teammates Parker Vaughn (6) and Matthew Aldridge (22) after hitting a two-run home run in the seventh inning of Tuesday's GLSCL contest with Xenia at Montgomery Field.
CELINA - A good bullpen is good to have.
Grand Lake's bullpen came through again on Tuesday night, pitching six innings of scoreless baseball, allowing the Mariners to bide their time with six runs in their final two at-bats to open the three-game series with Xenia with an 8-2 win in Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League action at Montgomery Field.
The Mariners improve to 4-0 on the young season as the Scouts drop to 2-2.
All five Mariner pitchers had solid outings. Starter Jackson Murcer scattered five hits and two runs over three innings, but only walked one as the Grand Lake defense stranded three Xenia baserunners.
"We basically started a reliever working on his submarine, but yeah, the four pitchers that went out there tonight really did a good job," said Grand Lake head coach Mike Roberts.
Grand Lake's Huston Dunn (3) applies the tag to Xenia's Cole Rohlmeier during Tuesday's game at Montgomery Field.
Grand Lake stayed even at 2-2 after three innings as Huston Dunn's fly to center brought home Matthew Aldridge for the first run in the first inning, then in the second, Landon Tiesing singled home Noah Drake to tie the game.
In the fourth, the Mariners went to the pen. First came Landon Nichols, who got out of a one-out jam with a runner at third with two straight groundouts to shortstop Tiesing. Then in the fifth the Scouts had runners at second and third with two outs before Nichols got two straight outs.
Meanwhile, Scouts pitching kept the Mariners at bay. Starter Jaydon Geraci held the Mariners to one hit and two walks over his final two innings of work before turning the ball over to Ryan Redding in the fifth. Redding allowed a run and a walk in the fifth and a walk in the sixth as the Mainers had three flyball outs in the inning, running their total to 10 flyball outs over six innings.
Fort Recovery graduate Alex Dues pitched two shutout innings to get the win for Grand Lake against Xenia on Tuesday night.
Fort Recovery graduate Alex Dues came on to pitch for Grand Lake in the sixth, having picked up two of three wins in relief over the weekend. The submarine-style pitcher retired the side in order in the sixth and got three straight outs after allowing a lead-off single to Cole Rohlmeier in the seventh.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Mariners finally got a flyball out. Matthew Aldridge led off the seventh with a single to right. Luke Wildes took the first pitch offered from Redding over the fence in right-center to break the tie with the two run shot.
"Finally, we're able to tag one in there and help open things up offensively," said Roberts.
Insurance came in the eighth as the Mariners sent nine to the plate. Drake started with a single. Marek Belson laid down a bunt, with the throw to first off the mark. Roberts called for the safety squeeze, which Tiesing performed perfectly as Drake scored. After Aldridge walked to load the bases, the Scouts replaced Caleb Shreve with Adam Laski. Wildes reached on a fielder's choice as Bolson was forced at home, but Parker Vaughn walked to bring home Tiesing to make it 6-2. After Laski got a strikeout, Brant Kendall blooped a single to right, scoring Aldridge and Wildes to wrap up the scoring.
"We got a big swing and that helped give us a little bit of cushion, then behind it, we get a safety squeeze, that puts us up 5-2 and then get a couple walks and a nice base set. So a team effort, all around team effort," said Roberts.
Dues, who struck out three in his two innings, turned the ball over to Elias Alvarado in the eighth. Alavarado gave up a one-out walk before getting two strikeouts in the inning, then in the ninth got a pop-up before recording back-to-back strikeouts to end the game.
The two teams continue the series today at Grady's Field at the Athletes in Action Complex in Xenia before returning to Celina on Thursday to wrap up the series.
