Griffons split regular-season series finale, prepare for postseason

Tuesday, July 22, 2003

The Nevada Griffons concluded the regular season with a split of a weekend series at Lyons Stadium. On Saturday, the Griffons pummeled Chillicothe 16-4, then on Sunday, suffered a narrow 5-4 defeat to the Parkville Sluggers. The non-league split left the Griffons with a 29-19 overall record, heading into the NBC Midwest Regional at El Dorado, Kan., on Thursday. The Griffons, the third seed, will meet the winner of the Wichita Twins/Wichita Rattlers contest, which will be played on Wednesday. Griffons vs. Parkville Two fantastic plays in the ninth inning by Slugger second baseman Andy Morgan thwarted the final Griffon's threat and sent the Griffon faithful home disappointed on Fan Appreciation Night. First, he made a nice over-the-shoulder catch of Tim Law's blooper into right-center field for the first out, then came the creme de la creme. With the swift Eric Horstman, representing the tying run on second base, and the potential winning run, Kirk McConnell, also a speedster, on first and leading hitter Chad Steele at the plate, even with two outs, it was looking pretty good for the Griffons. Sure enough, Steele rifled a shot just right of the second-base bag that had H-I-T written all over it. This was a gapper that would certainly score one and possibly two runs. But Morgan leaped high, and with full extension, snagged the liner out of the summer night air before tumbling to the outfield turf. A stellar catch and a sour end to the Griffons' regular season. "He made two plays in that inning that were great plays," said Nevada coach Scott Thomason. "He's a kid that I've known for a long, long time; a kid I used to coach. So it's kind of bittersweet that he ends the game that way against us." The Griffons had battled back from a 2-0 deficit to take the lead with three runs in the third inning. Horstman's single scored Law and McConnell's base hit plated Horstman with the game-tying run. McConnell came around to score the tie-breaking tally on Reed Hawkins' Texas-League single. The Sluggers tied it again at 3-3 with a single run in the fifth and retook the lead with two unearned runs in the sixth. It could have been worse. Nevada starter Chris Thompson ran into trouble with one out in the inning. A hit, a walk, a wild pitch and another walk loaded the bases with one out. Kyler Pomeroy came on in relief of Thompson. A throw to first base on a routine grounder by the first batter he faced was mishandled, allowing one run to score and leaving the bases still jammed. A walk plated another run before Pomeroy induced a groundball that was converted into a "pitcher's best friend," a 6-4-3 double play to end the frame. In the seventh, Horstman tripled to the center-field wall preceding McConnell's two-out double to narrow the gap to 5-4. But the Sluggers held on to even the season series at 1-1. "You've got to tip your hat to them," said Thomason. "That's a good club." Thompson (2-3) took the loss, going 5 1/3 innings, allowing five runs (three earned) on eight hits. He struck out four and walked three. The Griffons, led by Horstman with three hits and McConnell and Law with two apiece, outhit the Sluggers 10-8. Griffons vs. Chillicothe It was Memorabilia Night at the ballpark and the Griffons gave their fans something to remember. Nevada pounded a season-high 24 hits in an impressive offensive explosion against the Chillicothe Mudcats on Saturday night. The 16-4 win avenged a 16-0 rout by Chillicothe against a short-handed Griffon team, coming off an NBC qualifying tournament championship in early July. Jeff Gray (3-1), No. 3 starter on Southwest Missouri State University's College World Series team, went five innings for the victory. However, Gray, always his own worst critic, wasn't particularly impressed with the outing. "I struggled a little bit with hitting my spots," he said, shaking his head, "but we pulled out a win here, so…" Gray gave up four runs on 10 hits, struck out four and walked none. Evan Burgess, Horstman and Mike Sillman shut out the Mudcats the rest of the way to close out the win. There were, of course, hitting stars all over the park. Red-hot McConnell, hitting .375, and outfielder Dwayne White, who's been struggling since an early-season knee injury, contributed four hits apiece. McConnell drove home five runs. Said White, "I've just tried to keep working 'cause it was hard coming back off my injury. When I came back I felt fine; it's just that my timing was all off and it seemed like I hadn't played for about a year or so." Horstman, also on fire at the plate and probably the steadiest of all Griffon hitters at .382, had three hits, as did newcomer Hawkins, who has been with the team for just two games. Steele, with a blistering team-leading average of .407, also had three hits and four RBIs. Gus Milner, Brian Bugg and Brandon Green collected two hits apiece in the Griffons' prolific hit parade.

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