GIRARD CONTINUES THE RAIDERS WOES
By Matt Maher
GIRARD, OH – The battle for 3rd place in the Northeast 8 conference was in full swing on Thursday night with the Indians hosting the South Range Raiders to town. Both pitchers showed excellence and poise on the mound but it would be the Indians bats and Jaden Royals arm that would propel them past the Raiders 8-2 and allow Girard to tie South Range for 3rd place.
The Indians started Jared Royal who kept South Range off of the board until the 4th inning where Tyson Tarajack led things off with a well placed double into center field and then three batters later Luke Gehring would bring him home with a RBI infield single! Royal sat the Raiders down in order in the 5th but in the 6th Julian Tranovich would bat in Brennan Klasovsky off of a long single to center field. Back in the 3rd inning Gaven Nagy ripped a shot down the third base line that was miraculously caught by Cam Herrick with no time to react!
Royal pitched a complete game with only 2 earned runs, 5 hits and 7 Ks.
The Raiders started Logan Baxter who also pitched 3 shutout innings but it would be the 4th inning where the Indians would take control and never look back. It all started with a bloop single from Cam Herrick into shallow left field, Kaiden Clare would bat him in during the next at bat with a RBI Single to right. A throwing error from Will Gehrig would later let another run score and then 3 runs came in during Dom Phillips at bat with the first scoring off of a wild pitch and then Phillips bringing in 2 more with a long 2-run single to left center.
The Indians also went in order in the 5th but tacked on 3 more runs in the 6th thanks to a RBI groundout from Royal, RBI double from Phillips and a RBI single from Santino Barone.
Baxter, in 4 IP, gave up 5 runs off of 5 hits and issued 4 Ks along the way, Jake Shumate took over in the 5th giving up 3 runs off of 4 hits and sitting down the side in order in the 5th.
The Indians had everything moving in their huge win against South Range and the spoils of victory ended up being a share of 3rd place in the conference with these Raiders. South Range (7-4, 2-3) will continue their road trip when they visit Niles on April 22nd at 5PM while Girard (5-6, 2-3) hit the road to take on Poland on April 19th at 5PM.
