Curt Conrad, Staff Reporter

They rank at or near the bottom of the 11-team Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League in virtually every meaningful statistical category, but the Galion Graders are still hanging around.

The Graders improved to 10-16 on the season with Wednesday’s doubleheader sweep of Northern Ohio. Galion is lingering in ninth in the league standings, but closed within 3.5 games of Grand Lake (15-14) for the sixth and final playoff spot and had played its best baseball of the summer in the past two weeks.

The Graders are 6-4 in their last 10 games, including a three-game winning streak going into Thursday’s game at Hamilton. Only Lima (9-1), Lake Erie (9-1) and Hamilton (7-3) have been better during that stretch.

“Winning these games puts us right back in the hunt,” Graders pitching coach Taylor Baker said. “We’re about three games out of that sixth spot.”

As a team, Galion is batting a league-worst .240. The Graders rank last in home runs (four), extra base hits (32) and OPS (.637).

The last five games have been a different story, though. Four everyday starters are hitting .400 or better during that span, led by corner infielder J.T. Core (.556). First baseman Mark Delas is hitting .455 while outfielder Hunter Clanin is batting .444. Center fielder and leadoff hitter Nick Riotto is batting .400 with six runs scored, three doubles and three runs batted in.

A rising junior at Penn State, Riotto has been Galion’s most productive hitter since his return from a hand injury earlier this season. He ranks second in the GLSCL with a .400 batting average in 18 games played.

“He has solidified our lineup from the leadoff spot,” Graders manager Ray Neill said earlier in the season. “He gets us going.”

An even bigger storyline than Galion’s recent hot streak has been the miserable weather and the havoc it has wreaked on the schedule. Since July 7, 10 games have been cancelled because of rain. Before Wednesday, Galion’s last home game was July 5.

On Monday the Graders loaded the team bus and drove to Cincinnati only to have a doubleheader with the Steam washed out. Galion headed to Strongsville on Tuesday for a doubleheader against Northern Ohio, but those games also were postponed.

“The past couple days we drove to Cincinnati and Cleveland only to have games cancelled,” said outfielder Austin Adams, who drove in the go-ahead runs in the first game of Wednesday’s doubleheader sweep of Northern Ohio. “We were talking (after Wednesday’s first game) and one of the guys said, ‘Let’s make it three in a row.’ One of our guys said, ‘I forgot we even won our last game because it has been so long ago.’ ”

All the inactivity is especially hard on Baker’s pitching staff.

“It’s frustrating because whatever preparation our pitchers do, they like to be on a five-day schedule,” Baker said. “It’s hard for them because guys have gotten bumped back.

“It’s hard on the bullpen, too, because those guys don’t know when they’re going to be throwing.”

Galion’s starting rotation has also come on strong recently. Trent Downs has picked up a pair of wins in the past week and is 2-1 with a 4.55 earned run average and 26 strikeouts in 33.2 inning pitched. Will Ore (3-2, 4.20 ERA) has been the most reliable starter.

Before Thursday, Galion only had 11 games remaining on the schedule. The league hasn’t yet determined what they will do about all the make-up games.

“It’s a league vote at the end of the year whether we are going to extend the season,” Baker said. “Hopefully we can get a bunch of those games in because we need the extra games.”

Bad News: Outfielder Zack DeThomasis, who plays collegiately at the University of Akron, left the team last week after news broke that the Zips plan to discontinue the baseball program in an effort to cut $40 million in expenses. The plan also calls for the elimination of 215 positions at the public university.

“He went home for the summer to try to figure out what he is doing,” Baker said. “He had a rough couple of days last week. He took a foul ball off of his thigh and was hurt a little bit. 

“It’s an unfortunate situation.”

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