Suwanee, Ga. – Brandon Grover homered and Harrison Osborn pitched seven strong innings as the Marietta Patriots (9-9) cruised to a 6-2 victory over the Norcross Astros (10-7) Tuesday night at Peachtree Ridge High School.

With the victory, the Patriots snapped a three-game losing streak while the Astros fell to third place in the league standings after the Brookhaven Bucks and Atlanta Crackers won each of their games.

“It was exciting to come back and get that monkey off our back,” said Patriots head coach Gil Navarro on snapping the three-game losing streak.  “The fact that we started getting a lead and started chipping away early was huge and gives us momentum and ability to keep going.”

The Astros out hit Marietta with 12 hits to the Patriots’ six but hurt themselves with four errors that led to four unearned runs by the Pats.

Harrison Osborn (1-0) was stellar in his first start of the season for Marietta.  The right-hander from Point University allowed nine hits, but also allowed just one run and two walks, striking out four and helping the Patriots snap a three-game losing streak.

“It was very exciting to see how much production (Osborn) got out of those seven innings,” said Coach Navarro.  “To be able to get that much production out of him was huge.”

The scoring started in the second as Trevor Austin legged out a single to third base, advancing to second on an error as Sam Freitas’ throw sailed high over first base into foul territory.  A wild pitch moved Austin to third before Gabe Howell drove him home with a sacrifice fly into center field.

With two outs and a runner on second in the third inning, Nate Stinson reached on another error by Freitas that extended the inning and brought Brandon Grover to the plate.  Grover then made the Astros pay with his league-leading fourth home run of the season, smacking the three-run shot over the left field wall to put Marietta up 4-0. 

Norcross responded immediately as James Basham doubled and Josh Johnston scored him with a single through the right side to cut the deficit to 4-1.  Basham led all Astro batters with a perfect 4-for-4 night at the plate.

Gabe Howell led off the fourth for the Patriots with a single through the left side.  Howell then stole second before advancing to third on a single by Stephen Cullen, who then stole second, drawing an errant throw from Jordan Krueger that allowed Howell to score.  A ground ball to the shortstop advanced Cullen to third before Randy Guevarez drove him home with a sacrifice fly to right field that put Marietta up 6-1.

Tate-Stone Frisina was the highlight of the night for the Astros, pitching four scoreless innings in relief of starter Jordan Krueger (1-3), allowing no runs on no hits and just one walk while recording five strikeouts.

Norcross added one more run in the eighth on an RBI single by Sam Freitas.

Both teams face each other again in a doubleheader Thursday, July 12th, at Marietta High School starting at 5 p.m.