Battle to the end

CELINA - The Grand Lake Mariners finished the 2018 baseball season much like they have played all season, scrapping to the end.

The Mariners nearly came back from a 4-0 deficit to lose 5-4 to Lima on Sunday in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League regular season finale at Montgomery. The Locos completes the home-and-home sweep after having beaten the Mariners 6-2 on Saturday night in Lima.

Malik Spratling got the scoring going for Lima in the second with a lead-off solo home run off Grand Lake starter Jordan Peck. The Locos added another run when Braden Doughty scored on Jess Davis's flyout to center.

The Locos (26-16), who enter the postseason as the Northern Division's second seed, added two more runs in the third on a Cade Beloso RBI single that scored Tyler Simon. Later, Ottawa-Glandorf grad Brad Croy scored on a throwing error to second. Spratling added the final run in the fifth with his second solo homer of the game. Mariners starter Jordan Peck allowed all five runs on seven hits and two walks.

"Those were two good swings," Mariners coach Damon Haecker said of Spratling's homers. "Can't do much about that."

After the fifth, the Mariners' bullpen shut down the Locos. Bradley Calhoun, Andrew Loudermilk, Connor Peplow and Justin Luneke each threw an inning, combining to hold Lima to just one hit and one walk over the final four innings.

"The bullpen came in and filled the (strike)zone up," Haecker said. "They kept us in the game."

Grand Lake scored a run in the third on Vann Acker's sac fly to right that allowed R.J. Williams to score and another in the fifth off Locos' starter Adam Biss on Steven Fitzsimmons' RBI double that scored Mackenzie Hicks. Biss also left after five innings as the Locos used several position players to close. Fitzsimmons scored in the eighth on Jake McCaw's sacrifice fly to left to make it 5-3. In the ninth, Tyler Simon, who started at shortstop for Lima, picked up two quick outs with a runner on base when Fitzsimmons singled home Hicks to make it 5-4. Simon ended any more thoughts of a rally by striking out Tommy Seimer to end the game.

"We had better at-bats later in the game. We started out slow," Haecker said. "We played well today."

Fitzsimmons wraps up his summer with a 3-for-4 game with two RBIs. Chris Meyers added two hits.

Haecker was happy how the Mariners had played hard all season, even if the final record was 17-24.

"We played hard all year. In summer ball, you know there'll be injuries and guys leaving. The guys who stuck it out and took care of themselves, I told them I respected that. That's a big thing to stay committed all summer," said Haecker. "We had a few players go down midway through the (season) and that hurt us a bit. The record is what it is, but at the same time (the season) is about development."
Saturday
Locos 6, Mariners 2

Lima scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth on a Spratling bases-loaded double as the Locos beat the Mariners despite having been outhit 10-6 in the game.

Grand Lake stranded eight runners on base, including two innings when two runners were left on.

Spratling went 2-for-4 with five RBIs for Lima.

Fitzsimmons, Acker and Tyson Hays had two hits each for Grand Lake.