Snakes defeat Mariners

CELINA - The offensive explosion that Southern Ohio had against Grand Lake in the later innings on Thursday night continued into Friday's series wrap-up.

Pitcher/designated hitter Blaine Crim hit two home runs and pitched six innings of four-hit baseball as the Copperheads finished off a two-game sweep of the Mariners with a 13-8 victory at Montgomery Field. Grand Lake make it interesting in the ninth by sending 10 batters to the plate and scoring four times to get within five runs before Southern Ohio got the final out.

Crim, the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League's leading hitter, put the Copperheads on the board in the top of the first after Ray Zuberer had walked with two outs. Crim took Max Gray's 1-0 offering over the fence in right-center to make it 2-0.

Grand Lake got back a run in the third on Jake McCaw's solo homer, but Southern Ohio quickly iced the game with a five-run fourth inning. The Copperheads sent 10 batters to the plate in the frame. Collin Minor had a two-run single and Mason Nadeau had the first of his three doubles on the night to drive in another run. Gray left after the fourth, allowing seven runs - two earned - on seven hits and two walks.

"We didn't fill up the strike zone much tonight. We walked (seven), four of those scored" Mariners skipper Damon Haecker said. "We had a few miscues in the outfield where we gave up extra (bases) that led to runs. Just bad baseball for the most part."

Mariners' reliever Connor Peplow worked out of a jam in the fifth as Southern Ohio left the bases loaded, but the Copperheads put five runs on the board in the sixth. Crim, Thomas Zazzaro and Bobby Johnson each had RBI singles in the inning. Crim closed out the Copperhead scoring in the seventh with a solo shot for his second long ball of the night.

Crim allowed two runs - one earned - in his five innings before turning over the ball to Andrew Franklin, who gave up two runs in the sixth.

After Blake Holub pitched a scoreless eighth, Chace Harris came on in the ninth to close the door, but instead gave up a leadoff single to Blake Crossing and walked Mackenzie Hicks and McCaw to load the bases for Chris Meyers, who singled home Crossing. Harris struck out the next two batters, but Hicks scored on a wild pitch to make it 13-6. Tyson Hays walked to load the bases for R.J. Williams, who worked the count full before drawing a walk to score McCaw. Chris Mutter came in from the bullpen to get out of the inning, but uncorked a wild pitch to score Meyers before loading the bases again by walking Justin Diaz. Mutter finally ended the game by striking out Crossing.

"They were giving us walks, too," said Haecker, referring to the nine walks issued by Southern Ohio pitchers with six coming in the final two innings. "We were able to put some runs on the board. We're not hitting the ball bad (10 hits on the night), but we didn't get the timely hit when we had runners in scoring position."

Crim, who leads the GLSCL in batting and RBIs, went 3-for-6 with four RBIs to raise his RBI total to 42 to go along with a .413 average. Joe Stewart and Nadeau each added three hits.

Crossing, McCaw, Spry and Hays each had two hits for the Mariners.

Grand Lake (15-15) wraps up the pre-All Star break homestand with a two-game series with rival Lima. The Mariners and Locos square off tonight at 7:05 p.m. before wrapping up the series Sunday at 4:35 p.m.