Lancers Lose In League Tourney
MOUNT VERNON, Ohio – The Grace College baseball team dropped an 11-6 game to Mt. Vernon Nazarene in the first round of the Crossroads League Tournament on Saturday.
The Lancers (13-29) will play St. Francis on Monday 10 a.m. in the double-elimination tournament with the game to be played at Huntington. With a win over the Cougars, Grace would advance to play at 4 p.m. on the same day.
Playing at top-seeded Mt. Vernon on Saturday, Grace was ahead 3-2 entering the bottom of the fifth. Jacob Bloom’s RBI double plated Brook Vosler in the first inning, and CJ Swartz and Tyler Weber drove in a run apiece during the third.
But the Cougars (40-8) claimed the lead for good with a two-run home run in the fifth. Mt. Vernon added two more runs in the sixth and another in the seventh.
Grace trailed by four runs in the top of the eighth, but the visitors managed to cut that gap in half. The Lancers loaded the bases with no one out, and Swartz drove in Aaron Christenberry and Swartz with a single. After a pitching change, however, Grace recorded three straight outs to erase a longer rally.
The Cougars then scored four unearned runs in the eighth to run away with the game. In Grace’s final at-bats in the nine-inning contest, Joey Hickerson’s single allowed Vosler to score. But Grace came up five runs short on the road.
Vosler was 3-for-5 with two runs scored from the leadoff position, and Hickerson was 2-for-4. Christenberry and Bloom scored twice, and Swartz drove in three runs.