MOUNT VERNON, Ohio – Grace's baseball team earned a series split with Mount Vernon on Saturday afternoon. The Lancers outhit the Cougars 20-13 over the two games, winning the first game of the day 9-7. The final game of the series went to the Cougars 9-4.
Runs were hard to come by the first half of Saturday's opener against Mount Vernon. Grace held a narrow 1-0 through four innings before both teams erupted for five runs in the fifth.
The Lancers used three-straight singles in the third frame with
Matt Friesema providing the RBI.
Two innings later, Grace took advantage of a couple of defensive mistakes to load the bases. A walk to
Gabriel Maldonado forced home a run. From there, one swing of the bat by Friesema cleared the bases for a grand slam to make it 6-0.
MVNU was ready to respond, scoring five runs of their own in the bottom half to cut the deficit back down to one.
The bats went quiet again for both teams until the final two innings where the teams combined for five more runs.
A double followed by an RBI single from
Mayo Fernandez gave Grace a two-run lead. But once again the Cougars found a rebuttal. This time a two-run inning tied the game at seven apiece.
In the final inning, Grace had the first two batters reach safely. A double from
Ian Wilson broke the deadlock. After an intentional walk to load the bases,
Cayden Calloway drove a ball to right field for a sacrifice fly to score an insurance run, making it 9-7.
Noah Dininger came on in relief to pitch the final 1.1 innings. He proceeded to get four straight outs and pick up the win in the process.
The Lancer pitching staff combined for nine strikeouts in game one.
Wilson, Friesema and
Carter Stogsdill each had two hits. Freisema added five RBIs, one walk and one run.
The series finale was all Cougars for the first three innings. They jumped out to an early 8-0 lead after two at bats.
Grace scored its first run of the game in the fourth inning. Three hits in the inning led to the first run off the bat of
Jose Ayala.
The Lancers outscored the Cougars from the fourth inning on, but the deficit was too large to get within striking distance.
A fielder's choice and a throwing error allowed the second run, and a two-out, two run single from
Darl Gustin accounted for the rest of Grace's runs.
Fernandez reached base safely in all four at bats, collecting two hits and two walks. Gustin provided two hits, two RBIs and a run.
The Lancers will head to St. Francis to start a four-game series March 20-21. Both doubleheaders are scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
