Griffs back on track after rendezvous with Palomar

2016 GROSSMONT COLLEGE BASEBALL

By Tom Saxe
Special to East County Sports.com

EL CAJON (3-20-16) – After seeing their 13-game winning streak come to an end on Thursday when Palomar tallied an upset win, Grossmont College’s slugging Griffins returned the favor on Saturday (Mar. 19) at Noel Mickelsen Field. And they didn’t take any prisoners.

NOAH STROHL, ANDRES RIOS and CABOT VAN TIL pounded Palomar’s pitching for home runs and the Griffins won 6-1, solidifying their hold on first place in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference. The Comets had an opportunity to move to within one game of the G-House (15-6, 8-0) in the loss column in the PCAC race. But the Griffs would have none of it.

After Palomar starter Mike Lopez left the game when he felt discomfort in his throwing arm on his final pitch of a scoreless first inning, the Griffins jumped all over the Comets’ second and third pitchers of the afternoon.

Trailing 1-0 going into the bottom of the third, Grossmont grabbed the lead 2-0 when TANNER PERRY walked to lead off the inning and Strohl hammered his fourth home run of the season over the leftfield fence. Rios homered later in the inning, also to left, and the Griffins were up 3-0.

It was more of the same in the bottom of the fourth. Van Til led off by blasting a homer over the centerfield fence. Then, with two out, Perry was hit by a pitch, Strohl singled, TRAVOR BEARD singled to drive in Perry and Rios followed with a single to score Beard, making it 6-0.

That was all the Griffs needed as starting pitcher DONAVON McCRYSTAL, ANDREW SCHULTZ, who came on to begin the fifth inning, and closer AARON CROSS, who threw the final inning, combined on a seven-hitter. They struck out seven. Schultz got the win as starting pitchers have to throw at least five innings for a “W” in a nine-inning game.

Strohl went 3-for-4 with two RBIs to pace a 12-hit attack for the G-House. Beard (2-for-5, RBI), Rios (2-for-4, 2 RBIs) and MICHAEL DIFFLEY (2-for-4) also had multiple hits for the winners. ROBERT BOSTEDT added a double and JUSTEN BURKEY had a single.

Rios, Grossmont’s second baseman, and Diffley, the Griffs’ shortstop, made spectacular defensive plays to rob Palomar’s Dylan Breault of hits as they leaped high in the air to spear line drives.

On the other side of the coin, Comets left fielder Cole Brooks made a diving catch to rob Strohl of his fourth hit of the afternoon to lead off the bottom of the sixth. Strohl also walked in the eighth, so he still reached base four times.

Palomar at Grossmont
Mar 19, 2016 at El Cajon, CA (Noel Mickelsen Field)

Score by Innings                    R  H  E
-------------------------------------------
Palomar............. 001 000 000 -  1  7  2
Grossmont........... 003 300 00X -  6 12  0
-------------------------------------------

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