Grooving Griffins send Arabs to 22nd-consecutive defeat

2016 GROSSMONT COLLEGE BASEBALL

 

By Chris Davis
© East County Sports.com

 

EL CAJON (4-16-16) — After a week-long sweep of Imperial Valley College, the Grossmont College Griffins are on the precipice of being the 2016 Pacific Coast Athletic Conference champions and the automatic bid to the playoffs that come along with that.

 

The Griffins (23-10, 16-5 PCAC) dismissed IVC (4-29, 0-21 PCAC) by a final score of 19-4.  For the four-game season series, the Griffins outscored the Arabs 53-8.  From the Imperial Valley perspective this is the sixth straight game, 10 of the last 11 and it extends their losing streak to 22.

 

With the win, the magic number for the conference championship is now three.  Any combination of Griffin wins (which will have to wait for a week) and either Palomar or Mt. San Jacinto (since they are tied for second) will clinch the banner.

 

JUSTIN MITCHELL (Granite Hills) had a game-high four hits (in five at bats) that led to scoring four times and driving in a pair of runs.  JUSTEN BURKEY (San Pasqual) knocked in four runs with his two hits.

 

The bottom half (six thru nine) of the Griffins lineup combined to drive in 12 of the 19 runs.

 

On the mound, ANDREW SCHULTZ (3-3, Patrick Henry) got the win by throwing five innings of two hit, one run (unearned) five strikeout ball.  JARRED WRIGHT (San Pasqual), DJ LEWIS (West Hills), ALEX GODOY (Otay Ranch) and THOMAS FIATO (Patrick Henry) combined to close out the game with one inning of work each.

 

Imperial Valley, believe it or not, had the lead after one half inning of play as they scored on a Griffin fielding error.

 

Then the Griffins came to the plate.

 

CABOT VAN TIL (Patrick Henry) tripled to center field to open the offense.  TANNER PERRY (Steele Canyon) singled through the right side to bring in Van Til for a 1-0 lead.  Perry then stole second base, for his first stolen base of the day, prior to ROBERT BOSTEDT (Granite Hills) drew a walk to put runners on first and second.  Perry advanced on to third via a long fly out to right field.  Bostedt and Perry would combine for a double steal.  The back side of the double steal was Perry’s second of the game and his 19th of the season, which has him just two stolen bases behind Tony Amaral of Gavilan College in Gilroy.  A ground out advanced Bostedt to third.  Mitchell singled through the right side allowing Bostedt to score the Griffins 3rd run of the day.  The fourth and final run of the first inning for the Griffins came when Mitchell scored on ANDRES RIOS’ (Mater Dei, San Diego) triple to center field.

 

Strohl singled to get things working in the third inning.  He stole second and third during TRAVOR BEARD’s (San Clemente) walk.  Mitchell doubled down the right field line to easily bring in Strohl and escort Beard to third.  After a ground out that froze both runners, they both advanced on a passed ball.  MICHAEL DIFFLEY (Granite Hills) singled to left to bring in Mitchell for a 7-1 lead.

 

The Griffins would score six runs in the fourth.  The six runs were able to be scored on a sacrifice fly (that scored two runs due to an error) and a pair of two-run home runs.  The home runs were the second such hits of the year for both Rios and Diffley.

 

Imperial Valley scored a pair of runs in the top of the sixth to close the score to 13-3.

 

Burkey hit a two-run single to bring in Rios and Mitchell in the bottom of the sixth.  COLE FLINT (Steele Canyon) added a sacrifice fly to right field.

 

IVC scored their fourth run of the day in the top of the seventh.

 

After the stretch, Strohl hit his seventh home run of the season and then a few batters later, Burkey hit his first home run (a two-run shot) to close out the scoring in the game.

 

 

	Pacific Coast				Overall
	GP	Record	Win %		GP	Record	Win %	Last 10	Streak
Grossmont	21	16-5	0.762		33	23-10	0.697	7-3	Won 2
Palomar	17	12-5	0.706		29	17-12	0.586	8-2	Won 4
Mt. San Jacinto	17	12-5	0.706		29	16-13	0.552	7-3	Won 1
Southwestern	18	10-8	0.556		30	14-16	0.467	5-5	Won 3
San Diego	17	9-8	0.529		26	14-12	0.538	6-4	Lost 2
San Diego Mesa	17	5-12	0.294		28	9-19	0.321	2-8	Lost 3
Imperial Valley	21	0-21	0.000		33	4-29	0.121	0-10	Lost 22

Imperial Valley  4

Grossmont  19

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