By Drew Terhall

DailyAdvocate.com

GREENVILLE — It was another exciting baseball game between Greenville senior ACME and the Greenville American Legion Post 140 Thunder program. The Thunder got the win again as the 18U team won 7-4 at Sater Heights Park on July 19.

Thunder head coach Chad Henry said the team played a bit young to start the game off, but fought their way to the win. The pitching from Greenville and former Thunder player Ricky Heidrich challenged the Thunder early on. The battles between the Thunder and Heidrich made for a fun start to the game.

“He probably wanted to pitch well against us. He played in the organization for a couple years. He came out and he was nails, that’s the guy we remember. It was fun for them to come out and some of the guys got to see him for the first time. It was pretty cool to watch,” Henry said.

For Greenville senior ACME, it was the last game of their season. Head coach Ryan Delk said the team went into the game wanting to just relax and have fun. With the players playing loose, the team did just that.

“I’m proud of our guys. I just told them, ‘Thank you for playing for me, with me.’ It’s a team sport. I love this game and it’s players like that, that make me want to keep coaching year after year,” Delk said. “We just came out planning on having a good time and that’s exactly what we did.”

Greenville was coming off a loss to the 16U Lightning team where they scored four runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. The bats continued to roll in this one as the team scored two runs in the bottom of the first to go up 2-0 early.

Drew Hamilton and Trevor Mardin both drove in a run. In the top of the second, Heidrich rode the momentum created from the offense and struck out the side.

But in the top of the third, the Thunder had bases loaded. Trey Schmelzer and Bryce Blumenstock both drove in a run to tie the game at 2-2. Then with two outs in the top of the fourth, the Thunder scored two runs to take the lead. Xavier Manning drove in one of the two runs.

The scoring continued for the Thunder. Aiden Psczulkoski made it 5-2 in the top of the fifth with a RBI double. They scored two more runs to make it 7-2 after five innings.

But just like their last game, Greenville didn’t go quietly into the night. Hamilton had a RBI double and Layne Hocker drove in a run in the final frame to try and spark a comeback. The Thunder didn’t panic and got the final out to secure the win.

Heidrich pitched 3.2 innings and had six strikeouts. Blumenstock pitched 3.1 innings and had five strikeouts. Hocker had two strikeouts in 3.1 innings pitched. Manning had three strikeouts in 1.1 innings and Psczulkoski had two in 2.1 innings pitched.

The Thunder will compete in the 19th annual Springfield Armoloy Memorial Tournament on July 21-23 in Springfield. Henry said while they were disappointed with their district tournament play last weekend, he has a young and hungry team that has a bright future ahead of them.

“I hate to say we’re building forward because you just never know what a team can do. But this team, there’s a lot of good characters in that dugout and I’m excited to go forward with them,” Henry said.

For Greenville, they end their season in another close game. The record isn’t the prettiest, but the team battled and were close in a majority of their games.

Delk said it was tough to consistently get the same group of guys to play together during the summer with everyone have different commitments throughout the season. But, the team still got nine players to show up and be competitive all season long.

The numbers also didn’t affect Delk’s main goal, to try and make every better in some way.

“Most nights, we showed up with nine and played with nine. Everybody got to play, so that’s great,” Delk said. “I love to do this in the summer because I just want to come out and make them better. That’s what we did all summer. Everybody on this team got better, whether it was in baseball or life.”

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected]