Marysville’s Gabe Schaeffer slides safely into home Monday evening at Dublin Coffman. The Monarchs dropped a 3-2 verdict in eight innings.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
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Marysville’s Jack Christian pitched about as solid of a game as anyone could against a strong Dublin Coffman baseball squad Monday evening.
The sophomore right-hander struck out 10, walked only two (one intentional) and gave up seven hits.
It was, however, a disputed defensive miscue in the home half of the eighth inning that saddled Christian with a 3-2 loss.
“You can’t pitch much better than what Jack did tonight against Coffman,” said MHS head coach Nick Blake.
Christian went seven full innings, but was lifted in favor of sidearm reliever Blaine Williams three batters into the bottom of the eighth.
Christian had thrown 101 pitches through seven frames and added another 11 in the eighth.
Coffman’s Alex Dluzynski legged out an infield single to lead off the eighth.
Christian had a 2-1 count on Matt Dorenkott when Blake decided to make the switch on the mound.
“We were getting concerned about Jack’s pitch count,” the coach said. “We were going to let him go for one more batter.”
Dorenkott put down a sacrifice bunt that put Dluzynski into scoring position at second base.
A groundball out by Shamrock relief pitcher Ben Hall put the winning run – which was Christian’s responsibility – on third with two down.
James Bartman, who had one of Coffman’s hits on the day, was intentionally walked to take the bat out of his hands.
Williams induced a shallow popup to shortstop by Phillip Perez.
Blake Storr appeared to make the catch long enough for the third out.
The ball popped out of his glove, however, and the play was ruled an error.
Dluzynski, who had been running with two out, raced home with the winning run.
Blake protested the call and the umpires conferred.
After their consultation, the play was ruled an error to end the game.
“We had some good defensive plays tonight, but at times we had some lapses,” said Blake of the Monarchs’ three fielding miscues.
Christian and Dublin southpaws Ryan Ebeling (the starter) and Luke Bartemes hooked up for a duel on the bump for seven innings.
The Monarchs (12-10 overall and 8-5 in the Ohio Capital Conference Central Division) plated the first run in the visitor’s portion of the second.
Gabe Schaeffer led off with an infield single and went to second on a wild pitch.
He had to hold on a bouncing ball out to the infield, but went to third on Christian’s base hit.
A successful squeeze play gave MHS a 1-0 lead.
The Shamrocks responded with two runs in the bottom of the second.
Bartman singled, but was erased at second when Perez reached first on a fielder’s choice.
A single by Spencer Eiselt and a Marysville error put runners at second and third.
They both scored when Ethan Hetzel flared what turned out to be a double to right field.
The Monarchs (who will host Upper Arlington on Wednesday) tied the game in the fifth.
Ebeling sandwiched a strikeout between walks to Michael Bonczak and Christian Colvin.
The Shamrock starter missed the strike zone on his first pitch to Connor Parks.
At that point, Coffman brought Bartemes to the mound.
Parks greeted him with a single that loaded the bases.
Chase Kilgore was safe on a fielder’s choice that plated the tying run.
Bartemes got out of trouble by coaxing a fly ball out to end the inning.
Christian put the Shamrocks down in order during the bottom of the fifth.
He surrendered a leadoff double to Dluzynski in the sixth.
With one down, Bartemes was issued an intentional free pass to set up a possible double play.
A fly ball out by Bartmen left Coffman runners at the corners.
Christian got out of the jam with a strikeout.
Neither team mounted much in the way of offense during the seventh.
Hall came on to pitch for Coffman in the top of the eighth.
He surrendered a two-out double to Schaeffer, but ended the inning with a fly ball out.
Schaeffer was one of six runners left on base by the Monarchs.
“We just left too many out there,” said Blake. “We didn’t get the timely hits when we needed them.”
The Monarchs were just one out away from sending the game into a ninth inning when Coffman scored the winning run on MHS’ fielding miscue.
MHS 010 010 00-2 7 3
DC 020 000 01-3 7 0
WP: Hall
LP: Christian