First-place Griffins can’t handle Knights in critical game

2016 GROSSMONT COLLEGE BASEBALL

 

By Chris Davis
© East County Sports.com

 

EL CAJON (4-14-16) — With the remaining games dwindling in the 2016 Grossmont College baseball season, the Griffins can’t have too many more days like they had on Wednesday (April 13).  The Griffins tied a season-high by committing four errors in a 8-5 loss to San Diego City College in a Pacific Coast Athletic Conference game at Noel Mickelsen Field.

 

Compared to Tuesday’s game at Imperial Valley that the Griffins (21-10, 14-5 PCAC) gathered 22 hits, they only got six against the Knights (14-10, 9-6 PCAC).

 

CABOT VAN TIL (Patrick Henry) had half of the team total.

 

ALAN STRONG (Santana) threw six innings allowing nine hits that turned into four runs, while striking out five.  His outing came hours after it was announced that Strong had signed a NLI (National Letter of Intent) to attend Mountain West Conference member Nevada-Las Vegas next year.

 

“We have put ourselves in a position to win the (Pacific Coast Athletic) Conference,” Griffin head coach RANDY ABSHIER said after the loss.  “Now we just need to take care of our business.”

 

City took the lead in the top of the first with two runs.  They added one more in the second.

 

Grossmont finally got the ball rolling with a Van Til double to left field in the bottom of the third.  MICHAEL DIFFLEY (Granite Hills) sacrificed himself to get Van Til to third with only one out.  ROBERT BOSTEDT (Granite Hills) singled to left center to drive in Van Til for the first Griffin run of the day.  A fielding error by City allowed TANNER PERRY (Steele Canyon) to reach base safely while pushing Bostedt to second.  A fly out to deep centerfield allowed Bostedt to tag and advance to third.  A wild pitch allowed Bostedt to score and Perry moved up to second.

 

One inning later, ANDRES RIOS (Mater Dei, San Diego) walked with one out.  A failed pickoff throw that went down the spacious right field foul area at Noel Mickelsen Field, allowed Rios to get all the way to third.  Van Til singled up the middle to drive in Rios and tie the game up at 3-all.

 

Both teams scored a single run in the sixth inning to make it 4-all.

 

In the eighth inning, San Diego scored twice off a Scott Martinez double to left center field.

 

Van Til singled to get the eighth underway.  Diffley was then hit by a pitch to move Van Til to second.  The Knights then went to the bullpen, well actually they went to left field to get the new pitcher, but you get the idea.  Bostedt sacrificed both runners into scoring postion.  Perry was then intentionally walked to set the force out at any base.  NOAH STROHL (La Jolla) walked to get the easy RBI as Van Til came in.  The bad news for the Griffins was that was as close as they would get the rest of the day at 6-5.

 

City would tack on two more runs in the ninth to close out the scoring.

 

Grossmont will try to get the ball rolling again as they close out the week with a pair of games Thursday and Friday against Imperial Valley.  Then the Griffins will have the bye week before wrapping the season against Mt. San Jacinto.  The Eagles are in a fight with Palomar for second place in the PCAC.

 

 

	Pacific Coast				Overall
	GP	Record	Win %		GP	Record	Win %	Last 10	Streak
Grossmont	19	14-5	0.737		31	21-10	0.677	6-4	Lost 1
Palomar	17	12-5	0.706		29	17-12	0.586	8-2	Won 4
Mt. San Jacinto	16	11-5	0.688		28	15-13	0.536	7-3	Lost 1
San Diego	15	9-6	0.600		24	14-10	0.583	7-3	Won 2
Southwestern	16	8-8	0.500		28	12-16	0.429	4-6	Won 1
San Diego Mesa	16	5-11	0.313		27	9-18	0.333	3-7	Lost 2
Imperial Valley	19	0-19	0.000		31	4-27	0.129	0-10	Lost 20

 

San Diego  8

Grossmont  5

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