PENSACOLA, Fla. – Defensive errors and an inability to get timely hits doomed the Grove Ridgerunners to a fourth straight loss at the Aggie Classic on Thursday, as the Ridgerunners fell to Greenwood, Ark. 5-1 in the tournament finale for both teams.
Grove (9-4) committed three errors in the game, leading to three unearned runs for the Bulldogs.
The Ridgerunners took the early lead with their only run of the game in the top of the first inning. Kaden Livermore led off the game with a single, followed by another base hit from Benny Steffenson. Livermore advanced to third on Steffenson’s hit and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Gibson Russ.
But Grove would get just two hits the rest of the game off Greenwood’s Chris Sunde and Jabe Burgess. Sunde would got 5.1 innings, allowing four hits and three walks while striking out four. Bergess pitched a perfect 1.2 innings in relief to seal the win, stranding two Grove baserunners in the sixth before pitching a 1-2-3 seventh to finish the game.
Grove also stranded a pair of runners in the fifth inning.
The Bulldogs only mustered four hits themselves off Grove’s Cordale Barton and Erick Ryan. Barton started the game and gave up three hits over 2.1 innings, but was undone by a pair of errors in the second that led to two runs for the Bulldogs in the second inning.
Burgess reached on the first error with one out, followed by a single from Chris Davis. Burgess and Davis advanced to second and third on a passed ball before scoring on a groundout and another error to give the Bulldogs a 2-1 lead.
Greenwood would go on to add two more runs in the third and another in the fifth on the way to their second win of the tournament.
Grove will play at Cascia Hall on Tuesday at 4 p.m. before beginning the Tiger-Zebra Classic on Thursday. That tournament will be played in Claremore and Pryor from Thursday through Saturday.
