Blake Bowen of the Lima Locos tags out a runner at third base against Grand Lake on Monday night.
Chris Howell | The Lima News
CELINA – The Lima Locos entered play on Monday night needing a sweep of Grand Lake and some help around the league to clinch the second seed in the GLSCL postseason.
The Mariners quickly erased that hope for the Locos by taking game one of the final regular season series in dominant fashion with a 12-0 shutout in seven innings at Montgomery Field.
Grand Lake put seven runs on the board in the first two innings and never looked back in its home finale.
Lima’s Ryan Yingst (Tiffin University) received the starting nod for the fifth time this season and he walked four Mariners, allowed four hits and seven earned runs in two innings of work.
Caden Lockwood (Ball State University), Liam Richards (Yavapai College) and Brice Estep (Coastal Carolina University) pieced together the rest of the game on the mound. All three position players turned relievers were making their second appearance of the summer.
“Obviously we want to win every game, but this week is more so about preparing for the playoffs,” said Locos coach Chad Ehrnsberger. “We were short on pitching tonight, and we will be all series because I’m trying to get guys rested and ready for the playoffs. Ryan (Yingst) struggled with strikes early on and then we made the decision to go with position players the rest of the way and preserve our pitchers for the next two days.”
Lockwood (Ball State University) relieved Yingst and dealt a 1-2-3 frame in the third, which was the only inning the Mariners went out down in order.
He returned in the fourth and saw eight batters before getting out of a lengthy inning where Grand Lake registered four hits and three runs to extend its lead.
Lockwood’s day lasted two innings. He allowed three earned runs and four hits.
Richards and Estep each hurled an inning. Estep was the lone arm to keep the Mariners off the scoreboard.
Ehrnsberger said, “Brice has done well for us this summer, this is the second time he has pitched for us, and what I want our pitchers to take from his performance is that if you throw strikes and don’t walk guys, scoring is hard. Today Grand Lake had more runs than hits, so that means we were walking guys and it all adds up.”
Grand Lake only needed one arm to control the Locos.
Hayden Bush (Tiffin University), the roommate of Locos starter Ryan Yingst pitched a complete game for the Mariners. He struck out a season-high seven batters, didn’t issue a walk and allowed just five hits.
Cameron Bryant (Ohio University) and Jackson Rains (transfer portal) each drove in three runs while combining for five hits. Stefan Di Corrado (Dartmouth College) and Ty Davis (Ball State University) also collected two RBI.
Lima (19-15) and Grand Lake (11-23) will play the last two games of the regular season at Simmons Field on Tuesday and Wednesday night. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. on both nights.
Grand Lake Mariners 12, Lima Locos 0 F/7
Box score (r-h-e)
Lima Locos 0000000 0-5-3
Grand Lake Mariners 340320x 12-10-2
Lima Locos 0 (ab-r-h-rbi)
Justin Gorski 4-0-0-0, Liam Richards 3-0-0-0, Andrew Stechschulte 0-0-0-0, Blake Bowen 3-0-0-0, Lout Fujiawara 0-0-0-0, Sebastian Alexander 3-0-1-0, Kaden Brown 3-0-1-0, Brooks Wright 1-0-0-0, Caden Lockwood 2-0-0-0, Landon Tate 3-0-2-0, Brice Estep 3-0-0-0, Bo Shinkle 3-0-1-0, Totals: 28-0-5-0
Grand Lake Mariners 12 (ab-r-h-rbi)
Drew Emerson 5-3-2-0, Cameron Bryant 4-2-2-3, Ty Davis 2-3-1-2, Jackson Rains 3-3-3-3, Stefan Di Corrado 2-0-1-2, Edwin Bowman IV 3-0-1-1, Aiden Booth 3-0-0-1, Johnny Nixon 4-0-0-0, Austyn Peak 3-1-0-0, Totals: 29-12-10-12
Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so)
W — Hayden Bush (1-1) 7.0-5-0-0-0-7
L — Ryan Yingst (0-4) 2.0-4-7-7-4-0
Nate Stidham wrote this story for LimaScores.com
