Baseball / Cincinnati splits Graders doubleheader, moves to 12-8

Cincinnati splits Graders doubleheader, moves to 12-8

Date:  Source: Cincinnati Steam

By Jacob Russell

 

CINCINNATI, Ohio - Two streaks were broken in game one between the Steam and the Galion Graders, but Cincinnati rebounded in the nightcap. 

 

The Steam, who entered the doubleheader with a six-game winning streak, got on the board in the bottom of the first when Warsaw Federal Player of the Game Grant Richardson (Indiana) scored designated hitter Gephry Pena (UCF) by grounding into a fielder’s choice. Richardson started in center field instead of Pena and went 2-for-3 at the plate with three RBIs and two runs.  

 

Kyle LaCalameto (Dayton), Cincinnati’s lefty starter, didn’t crack until the top of the third. Fellow Dayton Flyer Takahiro Yamada tied the game for Galion, who had lost their last five games, with a sacrifice fly to left that scored first baseman JP Bitzenhofer (Cincinnati). 

 

Cincinnati secured a comfortable lead in the third inning of Jarrett Miller’s (IUPUI) start. Third baseman Braydon Runion (Walters State CC) brought in two, Pena and second baseman Eddie Rivero (Xavier), using a single. A later single off the bat of Tyler Wardwell (Duke) plated Richardson. 

 

Miller pitched four innings, gave up seven hits and four runs (three earned), struck out two and walked five.

 

When Jack Dungan (Eastern Michigan) relieved LaCalameto in the top of the fifth, the bases were loaded with two outs. Dungan walked two runs home before finishing the inning. After those two earned runs, LaCalameto’s line was three hits and three earned runs allowed, five strikeouts and three walks in four and two-thirds innings.

 

Catcher Ben McCabe’s (UCF) RBI single gave Richardson his third run of the night and his team a 5-3 lead after five innings. Richardson gave the Steam additional insurance in the sixth inning with a two-RBI single against Trey Bame (Findlay), who would end up with the win (now 2-1) despite allowing three earned runs in two innings.

 

The Graders scored six runs off Dungan, lefty reliever Casey Grimm (Wright State - Lake) and Cade Spikes (North Greenville) in the top of the seventh. If you combine every walk, hit by pitch and wild pitch, Cincinnati gave Galion 10 bases that inning.

 

Rivero’s sacrifice fly to left that scored Wardwell in the bottom of the seventh made things interesting, but Christopher Punka (Ohio Wesleyan) got the two-out save to give Grimm (now 1-1) the loss. The first seven-inning game, which Galion won 9-8, lasted more than three hours.

 

The bat of catcher Cameron Rountree (Wright State), the Warsaw Federal Player of the Game, pulled the Steam ahead of Galion in game two. Rountree scored the first run of the game in the bottom of the third with a solo homer to left field.

 

Bitzenhofer, who started behind the plate for the Graders in game two, responded with a two-run bomb in the top of the fourth off Cincinnati starter Brock Nartker (Wright State). Nartker, who allowed four hits and two earned runs, struck out six and walked three, was pulled after four innings. 

 

Cincinnati’s four runs in the bottom of the sixth sealed the rebound win. Richardson’s fifth homer of the year tied the game. Right fielder Ethan Stringer’s (Louisville) first hit as a member of the Steam scored the go-ahead run. Rountree collected his second and third RBIs of the game and made it 5-2 with a single.

 

Graders starter James Kontur (Malone), who is now 0-3, was on the hook for the loss after allowing three hits and four runs (three earned) in five innings and change.

 

Ethan Doty (Otterbein) earned his second win of the year by striking out five in the last three innings. 

 

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