The Grove Ridgerunners bounced back with an extra inning win on the second day of their Spring Break excursion to western Oklahoma, outlasting the Chisholm Longhorns 6-5 in eight innings on Tuesday.
The Ridgerunners (5-3) lost to Enid 8-0 in five innings on Monday, but managed to recover both from that loss, and the loss of a 5-2 lead on Tuesday, as Scottie Spicer drove in the winning run on a sacrifice fly in the top of the extra frame.
Grove broke a 2-2 tie with three runs in the top of the fifth. Cole Sharp led off the inning with a walk, followed by a bunt single by Trent Lyle. Spicer was then hit by a pitch to load the bases.
After Sharp was thrown out at home on a fielder’s choice, Ty Phillips came through with an RBI single to put the Ridgerunners ahead. Cordale Barton followed with a sacrifice fly to drive Spicer home and Jake Spychalski would add a third run before the inning ended.
The Longhorns (3-3) came back with three of their own in the bottom of the sixth. A pair of walks and a single by Brock Chance loaded the bases. Trevor Galusha then singled to center to drive in two runs, and a Grove error allowed the third and tying run to score.
Chisholm took the early lead when Luke Ball led off the game with a single, advanced to second on an error, stole third and scored on a passed ball to make it 1-0.
Sharp led off the Grove third with a single and later tied the game on Spychalski’s run-scoring base hit. Phillips followed with a sacrifice fly to score Spicer and put Grove into the lead.
Barton came on in relief of Spychalski in the sixth inning, throwing 2.2 innings while allowing one hit and one walk to earn the win. The junior right-hander threw 18 of his 25 pitches for strikes in picking up his second win of the season.
Spychalski logged 5.1 innings, striking out five and walking five, allowing eight hits and two earned runs.
Enid 8, Grove 0 (Monday)
The Grove Ridgerunners managed only four hits in losing to the Enid Plainsmen 8-0 in five innings on Monday.
The Plainsmen (2-3) got single runs in the first and second innings off Grove starter Brent Hall before taking control of the game with four runs in the fourth. A walk, a fielder’s choice and a single loaded the bases before a single scored two runs to make it 4-0. Another walk loaded the bases, and a double play followed by a balk brought in two more runs.
Enid then got two more in the bottom of the fifth to bring the game to an end by run rule.
Grove’s best chance to score came in the top of the fourth inning. Jake Spychalski got a one-out walk, followed by a single by Ty Phillips and a walk by Cordale Barton to load the bases. But a pop-up to left field was not deep enough to score a run, and a ground out to second ended the inning with no runs.
The Ridgerunners will be off until Monday when they travel to Claremore for a District 5A-3 contest against the Zebras. The two teams will play at Grove on Tuesday.
