There's no place like home

CELINA - There's nothing like having the creature comforts of home to get things going in the right direction.

Grand Lake scored five runs in the bottom of the seventh to break a 3-all tie and snapped a three-game losing skid with an 8-4 win over the rival Lima Locos in Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League baseball action on Wednesday night at Montgomery Field.

It was just the eighth home game in 22 outings for the Mariners, with the bulk of the July schedule being home contests. Skipper Tony Perez knows not having long-distance road trips for a while will help only help the squad in the second half of the season.

"It feels great to be home and get some rest," said Perez, whose team will play 13 of their final 20 regular season games at Montgomery Field. "It seems we've been on the road the last couple of weeks, going six hours round trip, eight hours round trip, day in and day out. It's nice to be home."

Early on, it looked as if both teams were going to pile up runs. Colton Ledbetter hit a two-run home run for the Locos in the top of the first off Mariner starter Keegan Gavin, only to have the Mariners plate two in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Marcus Ernst and a Brayden Morrow double.

Gavin and Locos starter Patrick Dillon proceeded to string together shutout innings. The Mariners broke the string in the fifth when Garrett Felix walked and stole second, then scored on a Brandon Green single.

The Locos leveled the game in the sixth as Ledbetter scored on a Miller Ladusau single. Gavin ended up striking out seven and walking two in six innings of six-hit baseball.

Grand Lake put the game away in the seventh, sending nine men to the plate and getting five big runs. Caden Kaiser had an RBI double with Green and Joe Jimenez adding RBI singles and Ernst hitting his second sac fly of the game.

"It takes the pressure off the pitching," Perez said of the big inning. "It makes life easier for the guys that are throwing."

Gabriel Torres, who came on in the top of the seventh, had all he needed to finish up. The Locos got one more run in the eighth, but after walking Darryl Buggs to start the ninth, Torres retired the next three batters to close out the game.

"The guys competed and the pitching gave us a chance," said Perez. "That's all we can ask for. We've been in so many close games. It was nice to get one tonight."

Green went 3-for-5 with two RBI and Seeker added two hits. Garrett Felix walked his first four trips to the plate and scored three times.

The Mariners will play two today as they make up a rained out game with Galion and then play the regularly scheduled contest with the Graders. The two seven-inning games will start at 5:30 p.m. Grand Lake will be home Friday for Sandusky before making a trip to Lima on Saturday and playing a 4 p.m. Independence Day contest with Jet Box.

MARINERS RECEIVE ENDOWMENT

Celina Group president Bill Montgomery has established a permanent endowment fund to support the Mariners in the future.

The Grand Lake Mariners Fund will be handled by the Mercer County Civic Foundation, with Montgomery donating $10,000 to start the fund.

"The Mariners are a local treasure," Montgomery, who is also the team's president, said in a press release. "The team deserves our continued support to keep alive this baseball tradition in our community."