Cornerstone strikes late to beat Grace
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. – Grace’s baseball team dropped both games of a doubleheader in narrow fashion at Cornerstone on Tuesday.
The Lancers (6-6) fell in a walkoff 3-2 in the opening game before losing 5-3 in the second outing.
Grace struck first in the top of the second inning. Sam Newkirk doubled and eventually came home thanks to singles by Jaron Mullet and Patrick Danforth.
A two-out triple by the Golden Eagles tied the game at 1-1. The score remained deadlocked until the bottom of the sixth.
Cornerstone pulled ahead with back-to-back doubles in the sixth, but Grace kept the game alive with a seventh-inning run.
RJ Snyder led off the inning with a single and then stole second. Houston Haney drove him in with a game-tying double. Haney was left on base, however, as the next two batters for Grace were retired.
The Golden Eagles made Grace pay in their final at-bats. Cornerstone won the game in the bottom of the seventh with three singles in a 3-2 victory.
Snyder hit 2 for 4 with a steal, and Danforth was 2 for 3 with an RBI and a stolen base.
Hunter Schumacher was Grace’s most effective pitcher, giving up no runs and one hit across two innings. He also struck out three.
Haney also tossed a scoreless inning of relief with three strikeouts.
The Lancers started fast in the second game as well. Grace scored three early runs to take a 3-0 lead.
In the first inning, Grace benefitted from a pair of errors by Cornerstone to score Alex Rich.
In the third inning, Sam Newkirk belted a two-run homer to continue Grace’s momentum.
Cornerstone countered by scoring five runs across the next four innings to gain a 5-3 edge.
Grace had a base hit in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, but the Lancers were unable to push a run across and had to settle for the loss.
Newkirk batted 1 for 3 with 1 run, 1 stolen base and 2 RBIs, Rich was 1 for 4 with two runs, and Chris Griffin added one hit and one steal.
Tanner Clark tossed two clean innings from the mound and did not allow a run, hit or walk against the Golden Eagles.
The Lancers jump back into Crossroads League play this weekend, taking on Huntington on Friday and Saturday at Logansport High School.