Greenwood wasn’t at its best, but it was still able to record a win on Tuesday night.
In Game 2 of their three-game series against Warren Central, the Gators struggled on the offensive end and let a nine-run lead be trimmed to five in the later part of the contest. But, despite the struggles, Greenwood (9-3 overall, 2-0 District 14) took advantage of many mistakes by Warren Central and did enough to claim the series victory.
“We capitalized on some miscues and were able to get some runs across,” Greenwood coach Jason Jaggers said. “But we’ve gotta be better, and that’s what we talked about (after). We’ve gotta be better than we showed tonight.”
The Gators only finished with one hit — that coming from Adam Schneller — but seven errors and 10 walks from Warren Central (3-4, 0-2) helped the visitors come out on top. Mac Ausbrooks started on the mound for the Gators and tossed 7 strikeouts with two hits and three runs in 6.1 innings.
The two sides will conclude their three-game slate at 6 p.m. Thursday at Greenwood’s Corey Hart Ballpark.
“Throughout the game we tried to make adjustments, and our guys just weren’t able to do that,” Jaggers said. “I mean you’ve just gotta make those adjustments. As a player, you’ve gotta make those in-game adjustments. We just didn’t do that tonight.”
The Gators took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Maddox Burr reached on an error and later scored on a fielder’s choice. In the ensuing frame, Cade Thornton scored on a wild pitch to double their advantage.
Greenwood continued to control the rhythm of the game, as it added three more runs to its side of the scoreboard in the third. After Reed Slone scored on a fielder’s choice, Schneller singled into right field to send a pair of runners home and give the Gators a 5-0 lead.
The Gators added another pair in the fourth to build an even more comfortable cushion. Following another Warren Central error that drove home a run, Burr crossed the plate for a second time on a tag-up, increasing their lead to 7-0.
However, the Dragons didn’t go away.
Once down 9-0, Warren Central scored the final four runs — including three in the bottom of the seventh — to take a loss with much more confidence than what it would’ve had.
“We stranded some runners tonight,” said Jaggers. “There late we give up an error and then a base hit and then a walk — and those are things that you can’t do. We’ve gotta have the other team earn it. We’ve gotta give up base hits as apposed to giving a free walk or giving a guy a base because of an error.”
–Senior writer Tyler Mansfield can be reached at mansfield.sportingtimes@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter at @TMansfieldST.–
