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Grand Lake's Nick Kemper crosses the plate on a wild pitch in the second inning as Licking County pitcher Christian Lothes reacts at Montgomery Field on Monday.
CELINA - For the first time in 25 days, the Grand Lake Mariners are at .500.
Grand Lake (14-14) put together a six-run second inning and got solid outings from three pitchers on the way to a 6-2 victory over Licking County at Montgomery Field on Monday.
With the win, the Mariners have won six of their last seven games, finally battling back from a 1-7 skid in mid-June that dropped them to 4-10.
"This is a run that doesn't happen all the time, but it's fun," Mariners coach Neil Schaffner said. "You just ride it until somebody comes along and tries to stop it. They'll keep it going, they'll keep the energy. You don't want to try to dissect winning streaks, you just let them ride with you."
Settlers starter Christian Lothes abruptly lost his command in the second inning, walking Jake Hutchins on five pitches before plunking Parker Bates and Joe Kido to load the bases. Nick Kemper watched two pitches miss low before hitting a sizzling grounder past diving first baseman CJ Willis, and even though second baseman Peter Jelenic stopped it at the edge of the grass, Lothes wasn't at first and Kemper crossed the bag with an infield single and an RBI.
Gunner Collins dropped a bloop single inside the right field foul line to bring home two more runs, but Lothes' troubles didn't end there. He hit Taylor with a pitch, fired another pitch too high for catcher Austin Evans that allowed Kemper to score from third, and gave up another infield single, this time to Hayden Robbins, to bring Collins home.
Zach Marzetz came in to get the final out of the inning and caught Robbins in no-man's land between first and second, but Robbins stayed alive long enough for Taylor to dash home and make it 6-0.
Grand Lake's Hayden Robbins is tagged out by Licking County first baseman CJ Willis for the third out of the second inning. Robbins kept the rundown going long enough for Jackson Taylor to score from third.
"I think as the summer's going on, they're starting to pick up patterns, see what's going to be thrown to them in certain counts," Schaffner said. "They're doing really good on what they're swinging at and when they're swinging at it."
Licking County got a two-out rally in the fourth against Grand Lake starter Dane Hall, with Noah Hollis starting it with a single, advancing to second on a wild pitch and scoring on Tanner Phillips' single to right. Phillips stole second and scored on Zade Fusselman's single, but Hall induced a grounder to short to stop the bleeding there.
That was the only blemish of the night for Hall, who worked around three other hits and earned the win with six strikeouts and no walks in five innings.
"He was spotting the fastball," Schaffner said. "Changeup wasn't that good, but his breaking ball was really sharp today, and he had much better command of his fastball, so he did a really good job. We wanted to get him out at a certain pitch count - we've extended him before, but we had some guys who needed to throw tonight."
Grand Lake relief pitcher Johnny Nixon, a Minster alum, throws against Licking County in his debut on Monday.
Minster grad Johnny Nixon made his Mariners debut in relieving Hall in the sixth, walking two batters before stranding them with a grounder to short. He then pitched a clean seventh, striking out Ben Vore on a failed check swing, before giving way to Aiden Plummer, who worked around a pair of walks for two scoreless innings of his own.
"(Nixon) got his feet wet, had two good innings, and Plummer shut it out for us," Schaffner said. "The pitching staff was really good tonight."
Grand Lake had a chance to add on in the fifth, as an error and two walks loaded the bases with two outs before Parker Bates flew out to shallow right.
In the seventh, reliever Gavin Mangus gave up an infield single, two wild pitches and two walks before being pulled for Phillips, but Aaron Walton went back to third on a bases-loaded ground ball and Jake Hutchins was called out for leaving second early on a fly ball for an inning-ending double play.
"That one I'd never seen before, but Walt's got to go," Schaffner said. "Walt's got to go, we've got bases loaded. He saw the high chop and his instinct most of the time is 'Stay,' but he's got to go on that one. But it didn't hurt us, and they'll clean that up."
Grand Lake now sits third in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League's South Division after Richmond lost to Southern Ohio on Monday, with the Mariners holding the tiebreaker over the Jazz. They are three games back of second-place Hamilton for a playoff berth.
The Mariners travel to Richmond tonight before returning to Montgomery Field on Thursday for their final homestand of the year. Xenia comes to Celina on Thursday and Hamilton makes the trip north on Friday.
