<p> With a stiff wind blowing out of Jim Beauchamp Field, Monday afternoon, Grove got a good outing from starter Jake Spychalski, flashed a little leather on defense and put together plenty of offense to take down arch rival Jay in a run rule shortened 9-1 affair.<span class="paragraph-1"> </span></p> <p> <span class="paragraph-1">After Spychalski yielded a leadoff walk to Bulldog Hayden Cunningham, his catcher, Austin Butler gunned down the runner trying to swipe 2nd. Following the 1st of the Ridgerunner hurler&rsquo;s 5 strikeouts, Jay&rsquo;s Garrett Mack reached on a two out single and moved up a notch on a walk to his counterpart Stetson Somerfield.</span></p> <p> And it appeared that the Diamond Dawgs were going to draw first blood when 3rd sacker Catfish Kay cracked a shot to left field that appeared to strike the foul line with Mack and Somerfield on the move. But, much to the chagrin of the Bulldog bench and coaches, the ball was ruled a foul and both runners were sent back to their respective bases.</p> <p> Spychalski then got Kay to go down swinging on a big bender to get out of the inning unscathed. In the home half of the 1st, Grove leadoff man, Trenton Lyle greeted Somerfield with a double in the gap and when Spychalski was struck by a pitch the Ridgerunners had a pair of runners on with no one out. Ty Phillips followed with an infield single to load the bases. Lyle and Spychalski both scored on back to back passed balls before Somerfield got the 4, 5 and 6 hole batters down in order.</p> <p> After Spychalski got Jay&rsquo;s Billy Gentry to ground out to 1st base, he whiffed the next pair of batters for 3 up and 3 down in the top of the 2nd. Backstop Butler led off the home half of the 2nd with a single, moved up 90 feet on Kyle Good&rsquo;s sacrifice bunt and scored Lyle&rsquo;s two out RBI single to take a 3-0 advantage. In the 3rd Jay&rsquo;s Cunningham reached base on a one out single and for a 2nd time got nabbed by a Butler when he attempted to filch 2nd.</p> <p> Brent Hall started Grove&rsquo;s 3rd inning rally when he was struck by a Somerfield pitch and moved t0 2nd on Scotty Spicer&rsquo;s 1 out single to right field. An errant throw back to the Bulldog infield allowed Hall to advance to 3rd and Spicer to 2nd.</p> <p> Hall scored easily on Butler &rsquo;s long sacrifice fly, as did Spicer when he sped home on Good&rsquo;s RBI single. Leading 5-0, Spychalski allowed a 2-out single to Kay, but got out of the 4th when he got the next visitor down on a called 3rd strike.</p> <p> In the bottom of the 4th, Kay took the mound in relief and subsequently issued a 1-out walk to Cordale Barton and hit Hall with a pitch. Before Kay could put out the fire, Barton made it 6-0 when he crossed the dish on Butler &rsquo;s 2nd RBI hit of the game.</p> <p> The Bulldogs finally got on the scoreboard with an unearned run in the top of the 5th as Gentry reached base and moved to 2nd on a throwing error by the Grove shortstop. Gentry then moved to 3rd on Michael Hopson&rsquo;s single and scored on a 6-4-3 double play.</p> <p> Cole Sharp led off the bottom of the 6th with a scratch single, but; was forced out on a bizarre infield fly misplay by the Bulldogs that landed Lyle safe at 1st. Another infield error put Spychalski aboard and with one swing of the bat, Grove&rsquo;s Ty Phillips put the game away with his rifle shot 3 run dinger over the wall for the walk off 9-1 victory.</p>