Picture credit to Brady Laber  

GLSCL Championship Series - Game 1

LIMA LOCOS  4  HAMILTON JOES  1  -  FINAL

(Locos take 1-0 lead)

FOUNDATION FIELD - The Lima Locos take the first game of the GLSCL Championship Series on the road with a 4-1 win over the Hamilton Joes at Foundation Field.

The Locos now are clearly in the driver’s seat as they will host the next two games in the best-of-three game championship tilt. The Locos are now one win away from winning its eighth GLSCL title.

Lima took an early 1-0 lead in the third inning. Locos catcher Will Briggs (UMass Amherst) led off the inning with a double. Marwynn Mathews (Macomb CC) followed hit a shot of the Joes pitcher Dale Ellis’s (Miami Hamilton) foot reaching safely on the infield single. Julian Jimenez (Maryland Eastern Shore) beat out a sacrifice bunt attempt for a another infield single loading the bases.

Payton Ebbing (Kent State) who came up with no outs, grounded into a double play allowing Briggs to score the game’s first run from third base.

Lima’s starting pitcher Brady Koester (Notre Dame) held the Joes bats in check throwing six shutout innings. Koester scattered two hits with seven strikeouts and walked four batters.

The Joes rallied in the bottom of the seventh after the Locos went to the bullpen.

The Joes loaded the bases tying the score on a sacrifice fly to deep left field by Brett Denby (Wright State). This scored Aidyn Coffey (Stony Brook University) from third base tying the game 1-1.

With runners on first and second base for the Joes, Christopher Roa (Miami University) smoked a line drive base hit to right field. Jimenez fielded it cleanly and came up throwing as Mark Nowak (Northern Kentucky) rounded third base with the potential go-ahead run. Jimenez’s throw was on line beating Nowak to the plate with Briggs laying down the tag preventing Hamilton from scoring the run. 

CLICK HERE to watch the postgame interview with Julian Jimenez.

After Nowak was thrown out at home he was thrown out of the game arguing the call being ejected by home plate umpire Joe Kimbrew.

Locos reliever Seth Galloway (Lindsey Wilson College) got the next batter to foul out to Jimenez ending the threat and taking the air out of the crowd.

The Locos followed by scoring three runs in the top of the eighth on the benefit of just one hit. Ebbing scored the go-ahead run from third base when he was forced home on a bases loaded walk issued to Grant McGuire (Winthrop University).

Lima scored two more runs on separate wild pitches extending its advantage in the game to 4-1.

The Joes rallied in the ninth inning when the first two batters reached base on back-to-back walks.

The Locos brought in its closer Brady Fitzpatrick (Morehead State) to put out the fire. Fitzpatrick retired all three batters he faced, all representing the potential tying run. Fitzpatrick struck out Roa ending the threat and the game.

The Locos, who lost five out of the six regular season meeting between the two longtime rivals, are just a win away from beating the Joes in a championship series for the first time since 2015. 

Hamilton who are the defending champions and have won five league titles, has won three straight championship series when facing the Locos. The Joes have topped Lima in 2016, 2021 and 2022.

The Joes are now on the ropes as they need a win on Friday in Lima just to force a game three on Saturday also at Simmons Field. First pitch on both nights are scheduled for 7:05pm. 

ABOUT THE GREAT LAKES SUMMER COLLEGIATE LEAGUE 

The Great Lakes Summer Collegiate, founded in 1987, is a wood-bat league that is certified by the NCAA and is partially funded by Major League Baseball. The GLSCL is a non-profit 501(c)(3) entity that is one of 12 members of the National Alliance of Collegiate Summer Baseball (NACSB). The league currently consists of 8 active franchises in Ohio and Michigan boasting several players that have earned service time in major league baseball.