GREENVILLE – The Greenville Green Wave dropped a tough 3-2 varsity baseball game to the visiting Celina Bulldogs in non-conference play at Sater Heights Park.
Thursday’s game was a heartbreaker for Greenville as the Wave lost the lead late, with the game tied 2-2 at the top of the seventh before Celina scored an unearned run to take the win.
“It’s been admittedly a little bit of a slow process, but we are putting together all the aspects of the game,” said Greenville coach Chad Henry. “We’re still a young team, but we’re getting it, we’re starting to make the plays, we’re not getting down, we’re limiting our bad stuff.”
Celina jumped out to an early lead in the first inning when the Bulldogs’ leadoff hitter belted a solo home run that bounced over the left field wall.
Greenville answered in the bottom of the first when Michael Fox singled down the left field line to tie the game at 1-1.
The Bulldogs regained the lead in the top of the fourth with an RBI single, moving in front 2-1.
Greenville battled back in the bottom of the sixth when Isaac Kerg raced home on a wild pitch, sliding in safely to tie the game at 2-2.
“People talk about how important base running is,” said Coach Henry. “We make it a day-to-day, every single day we work on base running. We’re always trying to be aggressive, and we play to stay moving at third base when it hits the catcher’s glove – you never stop moving, and Isaac, to his credit, he moved on the pitch, and when the ball didn’t hit, he kept moving, and he made that split decision and ran in there aggressively. He caught the catcher by surprise more than anything.”
Both teams received strong pitching performances. Celina pitchers struck out 10 Greenville batters, while the Wave staff sat down three Bulldogs.
Layden Wion started on the mound for Greenville, allowing six hits and two runs over four and one-third innings while striking out one and walking one. Malieke Rhoades took the hard-luck loss in relief, throwing two and two-thirds innings and giving up one unearned run on two hits while striking out two and walking none.
“Layden is good at mixing speeds; he’s good at locating, he had everything working today,” said Coach Henry. “We cut him a little bit short. We have a big week next week, and this being a non-conference game, he gave us 70 pitches really good, and Malieke came in and did what Malieke does.”
Fox led Greenville at the plate, going 3-for-3 with a double and an RBI. Kerg added a double and scored a run in three plate appearances, while Chilly Jasenski went 1-for-3 with a run scored for the Wave.
BOX SCORE:
123 456 7 R H E
100 100 1 3 8 1 Celina
100 001 0 2 5 2 Greenville
