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Hinton homers, but Chillicothe holds in Griffons' home opener
It is still early in the Nevada Griffons’ season, but according to first-year head coach Jason Jacome the team is finding its chemistry, establishing a rotation, and solidifying the lineup.
After Sunday’s home opener against Chillicothe, the Griffons also may have identified their new top rival in the MINK League.
“It will be an interesting series when we go to their place,” said Jacome, whose squad fell to 1-3 on the season following a 12-10 loss to the Mudcats at Lyons Stadium — a game that saw tempers flare up at the end when Chillicothe closer Tanner Sears taunted Nevada’s dugout to celebrate a game-ending strikeout. “These guys didn’t take it too kindly that he tried to show us all up. They will definitely remember that.”
Chillicothe skipper Tyler Hudlow was also fired up after his team’s win, apparently taking exception to the home plate umpire stepping between one of his batters and Griffons catcher Chase St. Amand earlier in the ninth inning.
Regardless of which team deserved to be more upset after this one, the bragging rights rightfully went to the Mudcats (2-1) after they took a 9-1 lead and staved off numerous two-out rallies by the Griffons to eventually hold on to a two-run victory.
While starting pitcher Jacob Young kept Nevada at bay for the first six innings, limiting the Griffons to three runs on two hits and five walks while striking out four, Greyson Barrett led the way for Chillicothe’s offense. The left-handed hittingTexas Wesleyan University sophomore belted two home runs to right, the first a two-run shot off starter Atley Jacome in the first inning and the next a three-run liner against Steve Marhefke in the seventh.
Those weren’t the only dingers in the game, though.
Nevada High School product Braeden Hinton, who now plays for the Pittsburg State Gorillas, returned to his home field for the first time and pulled off a feat at Lyons Stadium he never accomplished as a Tiger.
“In my four years of high school, I never hit a home run here. It is really nice to get the first home run out on this field,” said Hinton, who helped cut into Chillicothe’s early lead by parking a curveball over the left-field fence to begin the bottom of the second inning, a newfound ability he credited to his Roger Ward, his coach at Northeastern Oklahoma A&M College (where Hinton played before moving on to Pitt State). “He helped me out a lot, and I learned how to lift the ball and get backspin on the ball. It’s definitely helped out a lot over the last few years. After four pitches in, I hadn’t seen a curveball year and I was kind of expecting to see the first one. He put it there for me. Just glad I could put a good swing on it and see what happens.”
The Mudcats answered with four more runs in the third, before Nevada plated one more in the fourth — this time on a Connor Wytko single that drove in Alec Telles, who’d walked and advanced to second on a passed ball.
Nevada scored another run in the fifth when Xavier Fosbenner led off with a walk, stole second standing up, moved to third on a Cameron Saso sacrifice fly, and trotted home on a Ryan Rodgers ground-out.
Marhefke, meanwhile, retired the side in the fourth and fifth, before allowing a walk in the sixth but striking out the last batter looking on a breaking ball. That kept Chillicothe quiet until Barrett’s blast in the seventh, which prompted Jason Jacome to bring in another reliever, Sebastian Kirchner.
“As we move along, hopefully we have more leads in ballgames where we have him to come in and throw a couple innings,” said Jacome, who watched Kirchner throw the final three innings and strike out four batters, including all three Mudcats he faced in the ninth — one day after Fosbenner struck out two of the three batters he faced to close out Nevada’s 12-1 rout of St. Joseph. “And then Xavier will come in and close games out, the way he threw last night.”
The Griffons made things interesting toward the end of Sunday’s contest when Jesse Fonteboa ripped a two-out, bases-clearing double and then scored on an error against Chillicothe reliever Jake Gernon in the seventh inning — which cut the deficit to five runs.
Then, in the bottom of the ninth against Sears, Jake Federico drew a two-out walk, Fonteboa singled up the middle, and Chase Beiter drew a full-count walk to load the bases.
Telles, who had two homers in the team’s win over the Mustangs, smacked a line drive to Mudcats second baseman Petey Taylor, who let the ball ricochet off his glove into right field — allowing Federico and Fonteboa to score and Beiter to move to third. Beiter eventually scored on a wild pitch, bringing Nevada within two. But a strikeout — and celebration — by Sears sealed the game.
For Jacome, though the loss was tough to take, it was another game that helped him see what kind of players he has to work with going forward, a process that has been ongoing since June 1 when the team starting arriving in town.
“We’re putting it all together. It might take a week or so. I told these guys early on, we’re probably not going to go out there and beat everybody to start off the season. We’ve got to get used to each other. As coaches, we’ve got to try and find a lineup that works, and we’re getting to that point. We’re seeing good things, guys putting the ball in play. We’ll put things together where we can start winning more ballgames in a row,” said Jacome, who highlighted the hitting of Hinton and Fonteboa. “We expect big things from [Fonteboa]. He’s a big power guy. Once we get more games under our belt here, I’m sure he’s going to be hitting the ball all over the place. I was wanting to make sure [Hinton] was playing tonight, especially opening night and being in his hometown, so that was good for him to get out here in front of all the people that he knows, and especially to hit a home run like that. That’s something special.”
Hinton, who was on the Griffons roster last year but, like the rest of the team, never saw the field because the season was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, said he enjoyed playing in front of so many family and friends again.
“It is really nice coming out here, being on the home field again, having the home crowd behind you. I’m just glad that I can come out here and represent Nevada, because I know we haven’t had a local player for a long time,” he said, echoing his coach’s expectations that, going forward, the team should win more games like Sunday’s nail-biter. “It’s starting to get a lot better. A lot of us are meeting each other for the first time, obviously. It’s just in a feel-out stage right now, but I think we have really good team chemistry. We don’t have problems with any of the guys, so I think it’s going to come together really well once we start getting even more tuned-in with each other.”