by Kent, Ohio – On a cold, windy, and sunny day, Crestwood baseball scored three runs in the fifth and sixth innings to defeat visiting John Hay, 12-7, in the first game of a double-header at Schoonover Stadium on Monday evening.
John Hay jumped out to an early 1-0 lead, and padded it in the third inning when senior pitcher Thomas Aston reached base on a ground ball single that went into left field, scoring two runs.
Crestwood would rally to tie the game in their half of the third, scoring on a wild pitch, an RBI triple off the bat of senior infielder Logan Bailey, and an RBI single by catcher Scott Schaefer. Junior Connor Rowe would reach base on a strikeout an error, scoring Schaefer and giving the Red Devils the lead, 4-3.
John Hay scored three runs of their own in the fourth to take the lead back, 6-4, and had an opportunity to add to their lead, but Crestwood got a timely double play to get out of the inning. They would later add two runs of their own, with a Neko Krause single to right, and a game-tying sacrifice bunt by Collin Gross.
After John Hay took the lead in the fifth inning on a single by sophomore infielder Austin Mehring, Crestwood retied the game on an RBI groundout, and took the lead thereafter with two additional runs, scoring on a wild pitch and an error. They would add to their lead in the sixth, taking advantage of a pair of errors and a passed ball for the final margin.
Despite the loss, coach Ron Saddler was proud of the way his team performed.
“I’m really proud of how these guys performed, especially coming out in their first game of the season. We kept battling. That was a big thing. If we made an error, we battled back, but just ran out of steam at the end.”
John Hay hosts a doubleheader against Painesville Riverside on Tuesday afternoon at League Park in Cleveland.
