Locos drop series finale to Grand Lake

CELINA — Lima appeared to be on the verge of extending its winning streak to seven on Sunday evening at Montgomery Field but a disastrous four-run fifth inning swung the momentum in Grand Lake’s favor, allowing them to avoid a three-game sweep with an 8-5 victory.

“It’s hard to be upset after winning six in a row, but at the same time, we want to have that killer mindset to go for the sweep,” said Locos coach Chad Ehrnsberger. “I think we came into this game content with winning the series and that was a different mindset than we’ve had the past six games. Hopefully, we learn from this one that every game is important and we need to win.”

Lima starter Dane Ebel (Lincoln Trail College) exited after four solid innings and Ryan Yingst (Tiffin University) entered the game, struggling mightily with his control and loading the bases on three-straight hit batters.

After Cameron Bryant (transfer portal) drew a walk to force in the first run, Andrew Kell (Salisbury University) tied the score at four with a sacrifice fly, and then Ethyn Barnitz (West Virginia State University) plated two runs on the first hit of the inning. Barnitz also drove in Bryant in the seventh inning.

Yingst was charged with the loss after allowing four runs in 2/3 of an inning. Ebel limited the damage to one earned run on four hits while striking out seven hitters in his third appearance of the summer.

“He’s thrown well every time out and we saw some more good things from him today,” Erhnsberger said of Ebel. “We’re still building up his pitch count, but his fastball has some velocity and his slider is working well for him. If I’m going to be picky, I’d say he has to get ahead in the count more often because he has good enough stuff that if he’s ahead, they’re going to have a hard time hitting.”

Syler Lhamon (Olney Central College), a recent graduate of Bath High School, struck out TJ Takats (Bowling Green State University) to escape the fifth-inning jam and he kept the Locos within striking distance, going 2 1/3 innings out of the bullpen in his second appearance since joining the team.

“We put him in a tough spot with the bases loaded and one of their best hitters up and he (Lhamon) strikes him out. That was huge,” said Ehrnsberger. “He’s certainly earned more opportunities and hopefully he continues to capitalize on them.”

Grand Lake scored its first run in the bottom of the first inning on a two-out bloop single by Jackson Taylor (Indiana State University).

Two innings later, the Locos put a four-spot on the board.

Andrew Stechschulte (University of Findlay) kicked the rally off with a solo shot over the centerfield fence. Liam Richards (Yavapai College) followed with an RBI single, then Kaden Brown (Kennesaw State University) short-hopped the wall in left-center field with a double to make it 4-1 Locos.

Richards finished the night 3 for 4 with one RBI and a run scored in the loss.

Marco Dumsky (Dartmouth College) picked up the win for Grand Lake and AJ McAninch (Marshall University) was credited with a four-inning save.

Both Cameron Bryant and Ethyn Barnitz had two hits for the Mariners and Barnitz drove in three runs.

The Locos (12-9) return to Simmons Field on Tuesday to open a three-game series against Muskegon (12-6), while Grand Lake (6-15) hits the road to take on South Ohio (8-13).

Box score (r-h-e)

Lima Locos 004000010 5-9-1

Grand Lake Mariners 10104011x 8-8-1

Lima Locos 5 (ab-r-h-rbi)

Justin Gorski 4-0-1-0, Liam Richards 4-1-3-1, Sebastian Alexander 2-2-0-0, Kaden Brown 4-0-1-2, Brooks Wright 4-0-1-1, Landon Tate 4-0-0-0, Andrew Stechschulte 4-1-1-1, Caden Lockwood 4-1-2-0, Bo Shinkle 3-0-0-0, Totals: 33-5-9-5

Grand Lake Mariners 8 (ab-r-h-rbi)

TJ Takats 5-1-1-0, Aiden Booth 4-1-1-0, Stefan Di Corrado 3-2-1-0, Jackson Taylor 3-1-1-1, Jackson Rains 1-0-0-0, Austyn Peak 3-1-0-0, Cameron Bryant 3-2-2-1, Andrew Kell 3-0-0-2, Brayton Bowen 2-0-0-0, Ethyn Barnitz 4-0-2-3, Totals: 31-8-8-7.

Pitching (ip-h-r-er-bb-so)

W — Marco Dumsky (1-0) 5.0-7-4-4-1-5

L — Ryan Yingst (0-2) 0.2-1-4-4-2-0

S — AJ McAninch (1) 4.0-2-1-0-1-2

Reach Chris Howell at 567-242-0468 or on Twitter/X at @Lima_Howell