Sports
Gonzalez Tosses Complete Game at Lorain County
< < Back to gonzalez-tosses-complete-game-at-lorain-countyBy Ian Ording – Copperheads Staff Writer
In front of a sparse Lorain County crowd, the Southern Ohio Copperheads, presented by OhioHealth O’Bleness Hospital, were able to record another win against the Ironmen 9-3, sweeping them over the weekend.
Unlike Saturday’s matchup, the Sunday afternoon game only took until the second inning for the Copperheads to start lighting up the Ironmen pitching staff. Before the first out of the game, second baseman Conner Callery and third baseman Tony Giannini each drove in a run. Giannini’s RBI extended his team high in the category to 24.
Later in the first inning, Callery scored on a passed ball and Southern Ohio led 3-0.
The Copperheads, and Callery in particular — who finished with two RBIs and three runs — kept scoring throughout the game and the Ironmen couldn’t keep up, only managing three runs.
“Offensively our approaches were good the past two days,” Head Coach Jonathan Nichols said. “We were able to take advantage of some mistake pitches and hit some balls hard.”
The second inning might have been the best of the season defensively for the Copperheads. Shortstop Joe Becht made a sprinting grab and Jeter-esque midair throw to first on a grounder he had no business fielding. Then, right fielder Chris Osborne laid out on a diving catch for an our.
The Southern Ohio offense and defense weren’t the only things clicking at the Pipeyard; starting pitcher Andrew Gonzalez recorded the first nine-inning complete game of the season for the Copperheads.
“It felt awesome (to throw a complete game),” Gonzalez said. “I didn’t throw a lot of strikeouts but my defense was there to back me up and I threw a lot of ground balls so it was good to have a solid defense behind me.”
Before tonight, the most runs the Copperheads had scored with Gonzalez on the mound was two. That was obviously surpassed against Lorain County when the Copperheads put up nine.
“I don’t know what clicked, they put up a (bunch of runs) yesterday and a bunch today so hopefully we can keep this rolling into the playoffs,” Gonzalez said.
Gonzalez’s head coach agreed that it was nice to see the ace get some run support.
“It’s just nice when our offense is producing like that,” Nichols said. “This might have been the first time all season Gonzalez went out and we were able to get some runs on the board.”
The next game for Southern Ohio is an away contest on Monday against the Lima Locos, who won the last matchup in Athens.
“It’s great that our offense has been clicking on all cylinders like it has been the past two days,” Nichols said.
“We need to keep it going, we’ve got a tough game against Lima tomorrow so we need a good offensive game because they’re pretty good. Offensively we need to build on what we’ve been doing and keep it going.”
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