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Monday, 30 July 2007 |
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Grand Lake readies for playoffs with win By RANDY WILKER
EL Sports Correspondent
CELINA — Behind solid pitching and 4-for-4 hitting by Michael Earley allowed the Grand Lake Mariners to finish their regular season on a high note with a 7-0 victory over the Lima Locos in the final game Sunday played at Jim Hoess Field.
“The bats showed up for us tonight,” Mariners coach Scott French said. “We haven’t hit this past week like I would like. Delaware pitched the ball very well against us on Saturday. We came to play today.”
Grand Lake started the scoring in the bottom of the fourth inning. Mike Stalowy led off with a walk and advanced to third when Marc Krauss reached on an error. Earley laced his second double of the game to right field that brought home Stalowy. Krauss scored the second run on a sacrifice fly by Brooks Hunton. After a strikeout, Earley scored on a single to right by Brian Suerdick.
In the bottom of the fifth the Mariners increased the lead to 5-0. Brian Hangbers replaced Brian Garman on the mound for the Locos and immediately ran into trouble. With one out, Kory Benbow doubled to left and Stalowy drew a walk. After a strikeout, both runners scored on a triple to left by Earley.
“Garman left the ball up a little bit tonight,” French said. “I went a little bit more right handed tonight in the lineup than I normally do because of the left handed pitcher. We haven’t seen many left handed pitchers at all this year and we haven’t seen Garman this year until tonight.”
Grand Lake concluded the scoring with a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Earley singled for his fourth hit to begin the inning and came home to score on a double to right by Zac Richards. Richards advanced to third on a wild pitch and after a strikeout and a walk to Suerdick, Richards scored on a wild pitch to make the score 7-0.
“Earley did a good job at the plate for us,” French said.
Following Saturdays’ doubleheader loss to Delaware coach French thought it was big to get a win tonight.
“I told the guys before the game that win or lose we are in the tournament,” French said. “Let’s go out and play some good baseball. We didn’t play very well at Delaware and they pitched the ball really well.”
The Mariners go into the playoffs on quite a roll as they have won 15 of their last 18 games.
“We have won more games this year with our pitching and defense than we have with our hitting,” French concluded.
The Mariners (23-15) will begin their playoff on Wednesday against a team to be determined. |
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 02 August 2007 )
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