Despite 9 Errors, John Marshall Finds Way To Rally Past Union Local, 12-10
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MORRISTOWN - Mark Cisar has been around the game of baseball for a long, long time, including a stint in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization. However, in all of those seasons he has never witnessed anything like he has this spring.
After starting the week with a 20-0 loss at University, Cisar has watched his John Marshall squad win three consecutive games in which they have committed an astounding 23 errors.
The latest victory came Thursday at sunny, but chilly and windy, Jets Field in the form of a wild, 12-10, come-from-behind nod over Union Local (0-3) despite committing nine errors.
"We can't field the ball. We can't throw a strike. We can't do a lot of things right, but we are winning," Cisar said with a smile. "We are hitting the ball, however, and, honestly, we're having some pretty good at-bats."
Down to its last three outs and trailing 10-6, the Monarchs scored six times on four hits and two errors by the Jets to take their first lead of the contest.
Ethan Cook looped a single down the right field line leading off and went to second on a passed ball. Chase Armstrong walked before Cain Martin delivered a single to center that plated Cook and ended the day on the mound for the Jets' Dylan Higginbotham.
Colby Carpenter came on in relief and immediately walked Kaden Younce to load the bases. After recording an out, Jacob Coffield was hit with a pitch to force in a run, making it 10-8. Brennan Sobutka followed with a sacrifice fly and Isaac Koontz's single up the middle tied the game at 10. An error on the Jets put the visitors ahead for good at 11-10 and Cook capped the rally with an RBI single to shallow center.
"Ugly. Not a good baseball game by either side," Cisar admitted. "A win is a win, but we're not playing good baseball. We have to make the routine plays and we're not doing that. You have to do that in high school baseball.
"We were lucky today and at some point our luck is going to run out. Our bats aren't always going to bail us out."
Union Local tallied three times in the first inning and twice in the second for a 5-0 lead as Logan Hess and Payton Causby had RBI singles. Drake Ault had a sacrifice fly. A pair of John Marshall errors made it 5-0.
The Monarchs stormed back with a 5-spot of their own in the third to draw even.
Back-to-back leadoff walks to Tyler Stauffer and Coffield preceded a RBI single from Brennan Sobutka. Koontz lifted a sacrifice fly to left that scored Coffield. Braden Sobutka knocked in his twin brother and Younce's single to center scored Aaron Hicks with the tying run. Martin was thrown out at home to end the inning.
A dropped infield fly pop up scored one run for the Jets in the bottom of the third and another crossed the plate on an error as the hosts led, 7-5.
However, over the course of the first three frames, Union Local left the bases loaded in all three and totalled 15 for the game, something that left first-year head coach Jim Hess shaking his head.
"That's been our story all year. Against St. Clairsville we had runners on base but couldn't get the big hit. Give us credit, tonight we put the ball in play a lot more," Hess noted. "You'd think with that many hits and all the errors that they (JM) had that we would've come out on top, but that wasn't the case."
A RBI groundout by Higginbotham; an RBI single from Evan White and another unearned run bumped the margin to 10-5 after four frames. A Koontz run-producing single in the sixth made it 10-6 and set the stage for the last-inning dramatics in which 11 Monarchs went to the plate.
"Dylan pitched a whale of a ballgame," Hess said. "Maybe I ran him out there one inning too long, but in the inning before (the sixth) he had the best stuff he had all night. So I ran him back out there and then we couldn't get a strike.
"The effort is there, though. I can't fault that," he said.
Koontz had a trio of singles and three runs batted in. Brennan Sobutka plated a pair.
The Jets had 13 singles with Higginbotham, Causby, Bryley Jennewein and Alex Moore having two each. Higginbothm had a pair of ribbies.
GAME NOTES
There were a combined 313 pitches thrown, with 173 being strikes.
The time of the game was 2-hours, 26-minutes.
JM's Daniel Montz made an outstanding diving catch in right-vcenter for the first out in the bottom of the seventh.
The Monarchs left nine runners on base.