GREENE – Greene took an early 2-0 lead after one inning and held onto the lead for the remainder of the game, defeating Sherburne-Earlville 8-3 Monday evening, despite the Marauders three-run fourth.
In the first inning, Greene saw the bases loaded after two singles by Bryson Smith and Kolby Finch. In between the hits, Jordan Carhart walked.
As Dallas Roe made contact on the third pitch of the at-bat, he sent a hard ground ball to the S-E shortstop. Attempting to make a play for an out, the shortstop was unable to come up with the ball cleanly. That allowed Smith to score from third as well as Carhart to cross home plate from second for a score of 2-0.
Roe ended up at second and Finch landed at third on the play.
With a second error in the inning, the Marauders defense faced a jam. Fortunately for Sherburne-Earlville, Troy Fleming struck out the next two batters, shutting Greene’s scoring opportunity down and ending the inning.
Greene, however, tacked on another three runs in the bottom of the third to take a 5-0 lead.
In the top half of the fourth, the Marauders offense got moving, tallying three runs themselves.
The first two batters of the frame hit into ground outs for S-E. Mitchell Winton stepped to the plate, hoping to avoid the third out of the inning and keep their scoring hopes alive.
He did just that as he sent a screaming line drive to center field on the first pitch of the at-bat. Needing to see two pitched during his plate appearance, Nick Ragonese drilled a shot to the exact same place in the outfield, advancing Winton to second.
Blaine Blinebry was hit by a pitch and Greene’s defense was beginning to feel the pressure as they saw the Marauders closing in on a run.
Sherburne-Earlville’s Taylor Gryzmkowski hit the ball to the identical location of his teammates. As he made his way to first, Winton and Ragonese both reached home for the Marauders first two runs of the game. Blinebry moved to second on the play.
Still facing two outs, the rally continued with Preston Eaves once again landing the ball into center field. His contact scored Blinebry and moved Gryzmkowski up a base.
S-E’s inning surge ended with the next batter as Ben Menard lined out to right field. Their offensive production in the inning, however, cut the Greene lead down to two runs.
The home team tacked on another three runs in the sixth to seal the deal for the win. The Marauders did see three base runners in the top of the seventh inning but were unable to score any, ending the game with a final of 8-3 in favor of Greene.
Despite the loss, Sherburne-Earlville out-hit Greene eight to five. Leading the S-E offense were Eaves and Menard with both recording two hits on the day. Gryzmkowski led the RBI column with two while Eaves picked up one during the game.
Five different Greene batters recorded a hit in the game while Carhart, Roe and Hogan Ludolph racked up two RBIs each as the team totalled six for the contest.
Finch was credited with the victory for Greene, surrendering just three runs on six hits over five and a third innings. He rung up six S-E batters in the win while his teammate, Ludolph threw one and two-thirds innings of relief.
Fleming finished with six strikeouts while allowing just two hits in the loss for the Marauders in two and two-thirds on the mound. Nick McDaniel toed the rubber for the remainder of the game, allowing three hits while striking out six Greene batters.
Greene will face Edmeston on Tuesday while Sherburne-Earlville will wait until Wednesday to play against Norwich. Both games are scheduled for a 6 p.m. start. These two games will be the last before playoffs begin later this week.
Greene 8, Sherburne-Earlville 3
S-E 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 – 3 8 3
Greene 2 0 3 0 0 3 x – 8 5 1