May 19, 2010
La Roche clips Grove City
PITTSBURGH -- The Grove City College baseball team dropped an 8-6 decision to La Roche Wednesday afternoon in the quarterfinal round of the 2010 Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Southern Championship Tournament at John Arnold Field. La Roche (22-17) will now advance to the semifinals Saturday against Neumann College. Grove City finishes its season at 19-20 overall.
The third-seeded Wolverines (the designated home team in the game) held a 5-2 lead entering the top of the ninth inning. However, La Roche combined four hits with two walks and a pair of hit batsmen to assemble a six-run rally. Dan Novak's two-run double in the ninth broke a 5-5 tie.
Grove City pulled to within 8-6 in the bottom of the ninth as junior shortstop Scott Moran (Columbia, Md./Chapelgate Christian) singled and eventually scored on a two-out single by junior third baseman Andrew Patterson (Akron, Ohio/Cuyahoga Valley Christian). The Wolverines could get no closer though.
Grove City took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the fourth as junior DH Kyle Wolff (Centerville, Ohio/Centerville) ripped a run-scoring double and junior center fielder Dan Quirk (Schuylerville, N.Y./Schuylerville) singled in Patterson.
The lead swelled to 5-1 in the fifth. Sophomore right fielder Dan Perkins (Hudson, Ohio/Hudson) opened the inning with a leadoff home run while Patterson doubled in Moran. A mishandled grounder also resulted in a run during the inning.
Patterson finished the game 3 for 5 while Moran and Wolff both went 2 for 5. Freshman second baseman Josh Sacks (Columbia, Md./Chapelgate Christian) tripled. Eight different players had at least one hit for the Wolverines.
Senior pitcher Mike Herringshaw (Chardon, Ohio/Notre Dame Cathedral Latin) started and pitched 8 1/3 innings for Grove City. He scattered a dozen hits and yielded four runs. He did not walk a batter. Juniors Cory Metcalf (Ashland, Ohio/Ashland) and Steve Stombaugh (Mount Lebanon, Pa./Mount Lebanon) both pitched in relief with Metcalf absorbing the defeat.
Herringshaw and senior first baseman Tyler Thompson (Lee, Maine/Lee Academy) will be leaving the program via graduation. Herringshaw tied Grove City's single-season wins record with nine victories this season. He is the College's all-time leader in wins (23), appearances (61) and innings pitched (245). He walked just 12 batters in 93 2/3 innings this year.
Thompson earned three letters as a first baseman and DH. He finished third on the team with 33 runs batted in this year and tied for second with three home runs.
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