Baseball: Seneca scores 3 in the 7th to slip past Putnam County in Tri-County

GRANVILLE – Like many sports, baseball is about taking advantage of opportunities when they are presented, especially late in a tight contest.

Seneca did just that in the seventh inning of Tuesday’s Tri-County Conference matchup against host Putnam County in a 7-5 victory at a windy Ken Jenkins Field.

Down a run in that final inning, Paxton Giertz reached on a dropped third strike to lead off, Matt Cruise was hit by a pitch, and Bryce Roe walked to load the bases. Tyler Sulzberger then smacked the first pitch he saw from Panthers reliever and losing pitcher Troy Petty to the fence in center, scoring the tying and go-ahead runs. Later in the inning, Austin Aldridge drew a bases-loaded walk to finish the day’s scoring.

“Coach said to all of us going into the inning, ‘If it’s your pitch, hit it’,” said Sulzberger, who also doubled in the second. “I thought it had a chance of going out because it felt like I hit the [heck] out of it. I rounded first, and Bryce was still on second ... I was like ‘Shoot,’ but then I realized we scored two runs and had the lead.

“It was a great feeling to be able to come through in that situation and help the team win today.”

Giertz, who had come into pitch in the sixth, closed the game, finishing with one walk and three strikeouts in two scoreless innings to earn the win.

“I told the guys before that inning started, ‘I don’t care how you get on, just get on,’” Seneca coach Tim Brungard said. “If it took reaching on a drop-third strike and a hit by pitch to start the inning, we’ll take it.

“Matt didn’t have his best stuff, but he pitched well enough to keep us in the game. I can’t even explain how proud we are of Paxton. That’s a freshman coming into a big-time conference game and shutting the door.

“This was the most put-together baseball game we’ve played this year. I couldn’t be happier with how the guys have played.

“Putnam County is an extremely well-coached team that knows what it’s doing on a baseball field. They’re a team that’s going to win a ton of games this season and one we’ll see again in a couple days. It’s going to be another fun matchup on Thursday for sure.”

Seneca (8-1, 5-0) grabbed an early 3-0 lead on a second-inning RBI single by Casey Clennon and two-run double by Roe in the third – both off of PC starter Drake Smith (4 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 0 BB, 6 K).

Putnam County (8-6, 2-2) tied the game in the bottom of the third on an RBI single by Jackson McDonald and a two-run double by Nick Currie – both off Seneca starter Matt Cruise (5 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 3 ER, 4 BB, 8 K).

The Irish reclaimed the lead at 4-3 in the fifth as Cruise doubled to lead off, then scored with two outs when a pop-up in the infield was dropped.

The Panthers grabbed their first lead of the game in the bottom half of the inning. Andrew Pyszka worked a leadoff walk, stole second and advanced to third on an infield hit by Smith. Then after Smith stole second, a wild pitch scored Pyszka and, after an out, Chris Uzella made it 5-4 in favor of the hosts with an RBI suicide squeeze bunt turned single.

“We’ve made too many tiny mistakes, whether it physical or mental, the past couple games and collectively they’ve ended up costing us,” PC coach Chris Newsome said. “I felt like we put Seneca in positions to succeed, and they took advantage of them.

“It was a good bounce back from an embarrassing loss to Midland on Monday, where we didn’t give our best effort. We made some really good plays defensively in tough conditions today, but we put too many guys on for free and doing that always come back to bite you.”

Seneca is scheduled to host Hinckley-Big Rock at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, while Putnam County will travel to play the Irish again Thursday to complete the back-to-back league series.