Griffons capture 6-5 win over the Clarinda A’s

Friday, July 8, 2022

When you lose four straight baseball games to teams you have beaten in the past, a burning passion starts to get fueled up to win again. That was the case for the Nevada Griffons, who had a tough Fourth of July weekend last week, who lost to the Joplin Outlaws and the Jefferson City Renegades by a large margin. A win was around the corner for the struggling Griffons, as they won last evening at Lyons Stadium against the Clarinda A’s, in nail biting fashion. “This is exactly what we needed,” said Head Coach for the now 11-20 Nevada Griffons Mike Albin. “We for sure needed to get back in the win column.”

After a scoreless first inning for both sides of the diamond, the A’s scored a run in the top of the first two runs in the top of the third, with Nevada still scoreless. It wasn’t until the bottom of the fourth when Nevada scored their lone run of the game so far, the one in the top of the sixth, and finally both sides scored a single run in the seventh inning to make the score now 4-3 with Clarinda still in the top spot.

Then out of nowhere, the Griffons put up three innings in the later half of the eighth inning, which now put them in the lead with the score now 6-4 with the Griffons having a chance to send the A’s back to their hotel rooms early in the ninth inning. Clarinda did score one more run in the top of the final inning, but it was no use. Nevada after having a four game streak of losing, won in front of their hometown fans with the final score being 6-5.

No. 11 Luke Piazza led the team in runs scored tonight with two, one being a solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning. Then #4 Andrew Pickering, #5 Jacob Schnieder #13 Seth Gray, and #16 Grant Nokes all scored at least one run in the ball game. Three pitchers for the Nevada Griffons played tonight in the 8 ½ innings tonight in Nevada. No. 3 Jacob Strobel started for the Griffons (92 pitches - 52 strikes), then was replaced by W. Sweet (43 pitches - 25 strikes), and #37 Sully Lane wrapped up the game for Nevada on the rubber (21 pitches - 9 strikes).

“What happened is Strobel came in and he did a really good job early keeping us in the ball game, and not getting too frustrated when guys are obviously hitting the ball hard on him,” quoted Albin talking about to Nevada Daily Mail minutes after the Griffons won. “Then we had some good relief outings, and our guys really did a good job on the mound tonight. I gotta do a better job of making sure I understand my runners and how fast they are. We called some stop signs and they obviously ran through them and it worked out this time; that's on me. I got to do a better job there. We just have to keep our nose to the grind and keep working hard.”

Tonight, Nevada wrap up the five day work week, and will do battle with the Clarinda A’s once more, this time with momentum and luck on their side. The game will start at 7 p.m. at George Lyons Stadium in Nevada, Mo., and gives the chase to local fans to see their Nevada Griffons play ball.

Respond to this story

Posting a comment requires free registration: