Marysville’s Gabe Schaeffer reaches to slide safely into third base against Central Crossing on Friday. The Monarchs won, 7-5.
(Journal-Tribune photo by Tim Miller)
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The Marysville Monarchs did not exactly follow the correct baseball recipe for success on Friday.
“You’re not going to win very many games when you give up five runs in one inning,” said head coach Nick Blake.
The Monarchs, though, overcame Central Crossing’s five-run outburst in the top of the fifth and went on to beat the Comets, 7-5.
Marysville moved through the first four innings very well behind the pitching of Trey Storr.
The MHS righty held Central Crossing off the scoreboard, giving up four harmless hits and striking out four batters.
Storr was staked to a 5-0 lead when Marysville (8-4) plated four runs in the home half of the opening inning and added one in the third.
The Monarchs roughed up Comet starting pitcher Austin Woods, especially during the initial frame.
Michael Bonczak led off with a single and went to second on a fielder’s choice.
Blake Storr’s double brought in Bonczak for MHS’ first run.
Chase Kilgore reached base on a fielding miscue and designated hitter Matt Belt singled to give the Monarchs a 2-0 lead.
Gabe Schaeffer was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Connor Parks then singled in two runs as Marysville upped its lead to 4-0.
With two down in the third, Schaeffer singled and went to third when Parks executed the hit-and-run.
Schaeffer then gave MHS a 5-0 lead on a delayed steal.
The Monarchs were cruising along quite nicely until the Comets came to the plate in the top of the fifth.
Storr yielded back-to-back singles to Dylan Davis and Nathan Havens.
The Comets got run-producing hits from Wood, J.J. Carr and Tyler Ronevich, while another run came in as a result of one of three MHS errors during the inning.
Storr finally stopped the bleeding with a fly ball for the third out of the frame.
The stalemate did not last for long as Marysville plated a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth.
Blake Storr led off with a single and was lifted in favor of pinch-runner Noah Brown.
Brown swiped second to put the go-ahead run in scoring position.
Woods coaxed a fly ball out, but Belt doubled and gave the Monarchs a 6-5 lead.
Jake Carper went to second base to run for Belt.
Central Crossing brought in Ronevich to pitch in relief.
Schaeffer reached safely on an error that left runners at the corners.
Parks once again came through in the clutch when he bunted a squeeze play that brought in Carper with an insurance run.
“The guys stayed tough and came back with two big runs,” said Blake. “We talk a lot about how negative things can happen and what to do about them.”
Trey Storr got the first two Comets to fly out in the top of the sixth.
He appeared to be tiring, though, as he walked a batter.
At that point, Blake summoned Blaine Williams from the bullpen.
The senior right-hander gave Monarch fans some anxious moments when he plunked back-to-back batters to juice the sacks.
Williams, however, induced a popup to get out of the jam.
Ronevich retired the Monarchs in order in the bottom of the sixth, including two batters on strikeouts.
Williams got a groundball out and struck out a batter to begin the top of the seventh.
Nash Baker singled for the Comets, but a popup settled into third baseman Payne Miller’s glove to end the game.
The Monarchs are scheduled to host Columbus DeSales today, with the first pitch set for 1 p.m.
CC 000 050 0-5 10 2
MH 401 020 x-7 10 3
WP: T. Storr
LP: Woods
SV: Williams