WALL—The Wall Clippers were looking for revenge Thursday night, as Frazier Baseball used a seven-run sixth inning for a comeback two days before. However, this battle saw the Clippers put on a comeback attempt that would fall just short.

Frazier relied on their best hitters, and some of the best in the entire league, to jump out to a 7-1 lead after three and a half innings. Runs came immediately as Ryan Duffy and his top-10 batting average improved on an RBI single to score an unearned run against Clippers starter Luca Marshall. Trevor Coltenbeck, another top-10 bat in the ABCCL, followed with a double to set the table for catcher Nick Vaughn.

Vaughn entered the night with the league’s best batting average of .483 and 3rd most RBIs, and added to both stat categories by roping an RBI single. Duffy had scored on a wild pitch earlier in the at-bat, making it a 3-0 lead after the top of the first.

Wall would tack on a run in the bottom of the first, but Frazier would answer back as another long inning brought the top of the lineup back up to the plate.

Leadoff hitter Anthony Diaz, who entered the day fifth in the ABCCL in both average and runs batted in, continued his great start to the season with a line-drive RBI single just out of the reach of the shortstop to make it a 4-1 game. Marshall would walk the bases loaded but escape with no more damage done, however he would be replaced by Nick Galvan to start the third.

Galvan had a solid first inning, recording one punchout and only allowing a single to the hot bat of Nick Vaughn. Unfortunately for the Clippers, his control would drop significantly in his second inning of work.

After striking out the first batter of the inning, Galvan would proceed to walk two batters, hit two batters, and walk another consecutively to allow two runs to score. That would be all for Galvan, as Ryan Lasko would enter for the mop-up role.

Lasko was fantastic in relief, escaping the fourth inning jam without giving up a hit and allowing just one more run to score. He would give length that Wall needed from the start, pitching the rest of the game and taming the Frazier bats in order to let the Clippers offense to make the game competitive.

Wall would start to climb back in the game with a Jack Scrivanic solo home run in the bottom of the fourth, and would cut the lead to 7-4 in the fifth inning on a throw into the outfield when Alex Alonso stole second and a Christian Bauman RBI single. Bauman saw the ball really well all night, going 2-4 with three loud shots off his bat, one of which was a flyout to the warning track in the deepest part of the yard in right-center field.

The Clippers would cut the lead to one run in the next inning off Frazier reliever Jeremy Bruner, with the two runs coming on a wild pitch and a hit-and-run RBI single from Joseph Palmisano. Bruner would walk the bases loaded with two outs, but got out of the jam by eliciting a pop-up to the first baseman to end the inning.

Feeling the pressure from Wall, Frazier would get help from the meat of their order in the top of the seventh. The offense would get some distance from the Clippers, plating an insurance run after Trevor Coltenbeck led off by recording his second extra-base hit of the night, and would eventually score on a sacrifice fly.

Wall once again answered back in the bottom half of the inning, with Bauman doubling into the right field corner and doing the rest of the work with his legs, advancing to third base and taking home on two separate wild pitches later in the inning.

Lasko tossed a shutout top of the eighth, and reliever Matt Ostroman would hold the lead for Frazier in the bottom half. The top of the Frazier lineup delivered once again in the ninth, getting an insurance run on Ryan Duffy’s opposite field RBI double to make it a 9-7 game. Reece Miller entered for the save, retiring the side with two strikeouts to close out the contest.

In total the first five batters of Frazier’s lineup was responsible for nine of the team’s 11 hits and combined for seven RBIs. Coltenbeck had four hits alone, and Duffy drove in three runs by himself.

Frazier secured a sweep of the home-and-home series against a Shore Division rival. More importantly for them, they sit tied atop the standings with a 9-4 record just under a month into the 2022 season.