LORAIN – Lorain County’s season could be summed up in this one game.
A strong pitching performance was plagued by one rough inning, while the offense couldn’t kick it back into gear as Lorain County fell, 5-3, to West Virginia in Prospect League action July 25 at the Pipe Yard.
‘It seems like all year we don’t get that big hit,’ Lorain County manager Joe Rhomberg said. ‘Then we manage to make a mistake defensively, and we end up losing by one or two (runs).’
Lorain County’s (18-32) offense, which has struggled in recent games, got on the board in the first inning against West Virginia starter Cody Pope.
Pope hit Tyler Bires to start the inning. Bires stole second and went to third on the wild pitch. He scored on Andrew Gronski’s chopper off the plate.
The offense continued in the second inning.
Carlos Ortiz laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to put runners at second and third with one out. Anthony Bova grounded out to second, but it scored Logan Landon to give the Ironmen a 2-0 lead.
Lorain County starter J.T. Brubaker cruised through the first four innings, allowing only one hit. But the fifth inning proved to be a stark reversal.
The inning started ominously.
Brubaker struck out Paul Trenhaile, but a wild pitch allowed Trenhaile to reach first. Taylor Kellner singled to right to put runners on the corners. Westyn Baylor flied out to left to score Trenhaile.
David Sheaffer hit a chopper to short, but the ball glanced off Cody Semler’s glove to put runners at first and second.
Another Brubaker wild pitch moved the runners up. The Miners tied the game, 2-2, on Grant Massey’s single to center. West Virginia took the lead on David Martinelli’s two-out single to left.
‘It wasn’t the best of hops (Semler’s error), but you hope to get at least one out of it,’ Rhomberg said. ‘We had bad luck that inning … a ball bounced over our first baseman’s head. The (hopper) to short kind of took off a little bit. They had two clean hits and scored four runs out of it.’
West Virginia’s lead was sliced to one in the sixth inning with Cody Semler doubling to left to lead off the inning. He scored on Landon’s groundout.
Brubaker (4-2) recovered from his rough fifth inning and ended up going 7 2/3 innings. He gave up only two earn runs, four hits, walked three and struck out four. It was another fantastic performance for Prospect League’s Pitcher of the Week.
‘He was a little wild early in the game,’ Rhomberg said. ‘(But) he’s been great for us. He just keeps getting better and better, stronger and stronger. His velocity is still up (low 90s). He has one more start and I hope he finishes strong.’
The Miners tacked on a run in the top of the ninth, thanks to a pair of miscues by Lorain County.
Though it was another tough loss to swallow, Rhomberg sees his team going in the right direction.
‘It’s a younger team on the defensive side so they are learning and getting better,’ Rhomberg said. ‘Our mistakes are becoming less mental now. I can live with physical mistakes. That stuff happens and it’s part of the game. I think overall we are getting better.’
Lorain County hosts Slippery Rock July 26.
