CLAYTON — Greenville Technologies Inc. held early leads of 2-1 and 4-2 Thursday but Northmont rallied with four runs in the top of the fifth inning, two in the sixth and five in the seventh to score a 13-4 victory in the opening round of the ACME district tournament at Northmont High School.
GTI starting pitcher Alec Fletcher worked 5 and 2/3 innings and got tagged for 12 hits, gave up six earned runs, walked five, and struck out one with the defense committing three errors. Landon Eldridge pitched two thirds of an inning and gave up four hits, five runs, and walked two. Tony Sells pitched one third of an inning and got a ground out.
Thunderbolts’ starting pitcher Reagan Schommer worked 5 and 1/3 innings, scattered four hits, gave up three earned runs, hit two batters, walked two and struck out three. Drew Rasor pitched two and two thirds innings and gave up one hit, walked two, and struck out three.
“Reagan Schommer did a great job on the mound and Drew Rasor came on in relief with his side arm delivery and slammed the door shut,” said Northmont Coach Gerald Rosendahl. “Coach Kirby has done a great job working with the pitchers and you saw the results of that tonight.”
Northmont got back-to-back singles from Drew Rasor and Will Miller to open the game. After Greenville turned a double play Noah McGilton stroked a single to score Miller for 1-0 lead.
Ethan Saylor got hit by a pitch in the bottom of the first, stole second and advanced to third on a high throw on the steal. He scored on a ground out by Marcus Wood to tie the game 1-1.
GTI took a 2-1 lead in the bottom of the third when Hayden Sharp drew a walk, Ethan Saylor singled to right and Landon Eldridge doubled to score Sharp. Saylor got thrown out trying to score on Eldridge’s double by Northmont third baseman Logan Spivey.
The Thunderbolts tied the game in the top of the fourth. Vince Sarno reached on an infield error and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by Chase Bickel. Logan Spivey drew a walk and Drew Rasor singled to load the bases. Will Miller drew a walk to score Sarno for a 2-2 tie.
Greenville took a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the fourth. Alec Fletcher reached base via an infield error and Cam Fletcher drew a two out walk. Hayden Sharp singled to drive in Alec Fletcher. Ethan Saylor drew a walk and Marcus Wood reached base on an infield error that allowed Cam Fletcher to score.
After that the wheels fell off and Northmont ran away with the game.
Noah McGilton hit a leadoff double in the top of the fifth and stole third. Reagan Schommer drew a walk and Vince Sarno singled to left to score McGilton. Chase Bickel laid down a sacrifice bunt to advance Schommer and Sarno. Logan Spivey reached on an infield error to short that enabled both runners to score. Tanner Moberly doubled to deep left to score Spivey to put Northmont up 6-4.
The Thunderbolts added two more runs in the top of the sixth on a single by John Reser, a walk by Sarno, an error and a two RBI double by Spivey. In the top of the seventh Rasor and Miller drew back-to-back walks, James McKinney loaded the bases on a bunt and Schommer stroked a two run single to left. Sarno also singled to score McKinney and Spivey singled up the middle to drive in Schommer and Sarno to boost the lead to 13-4.
GTI Coach Ryan Eldridge is confident his team can fight back in the double elimination tournament. His team had only nine players to work with against Northmont and has had a skeleton crew to work with all season. Despite that GTI reeled off six consecutive victories to emerge from sectional tournament play and qualify for district.
“We had a lot of mental mistakes in the field and we couldn’t capitalize when we had runners in scoring position,” Eldridge said. “Way too many mental mistakes cost us deeply. We only had nine kids tonight and it has been like that the whole season. We put this team together in a couple of weeks. We’ve been bouncing kids around all over and football is starting up so we only had nine to work with tonight. Last week we did the same thing. We came out and lost the first game and then won six in a row to get here, so I believe in my guys and believe we can come back and get to the championship game.”
Greenville will play the loser of Friday night’s game between Carroll and Versailles on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Northmont. The Thunderbolts play the winner of the Carroll vs. Versailles game at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
