All Americans 7 Mariners 8

The All-Americans (10-10) fell to the Grand Lake Mariners last night by a score of 8 to 7.

Box score

The Mariners jumped out to a 5-0 lead in the 2nd inning, and once again couldn't muster much against Dave Paddock, who threw a complete game shutout the last time Columbus played Grand Lake. This time, Paddock went 6 innings and gave up 1 run on 5 hits while striking out 2 and walking none. The All-Americans did figure out the three relievers that followed Paddock; they scored 3 runs off Matt Jordan, who only managed to get 1 out in the 7th; Nick Jensen gave up 2 runs in 1.2 innings of work, and Heath Riley escaped from a jam in the 9th to get a save.

The All-Americans took their time getting the bats going, and it turned out to be too little too late. By the time they started to score runs, Grand Lake was ahead 8-1; 3 All-American errors led to 4 unearned runs for the Mariners. In the 7th, a few singles and a few walks led to 3 runs for the All-Americans. In the 8th, Zach Dygert led off with a single and Cory Rupert followed with a double down the left field line. Dygert would score on a wild pitch. Zack Leonard knocked in Rupert with a sac fly. In the 9th, Hayden Johnston led off with a hard ground ball at shortstop Tim Fogerty, who bobbled the ball but was able to throw out Johnston at first. Chris Lewis singled and Robert Maddox, pinch-hitting for Kolbrin Vitek, hit a double off the right-center field wall and advanced to third on a throwing error, putting the tying run at 3rd with only one out. Unfortunately, Ben Klafczynski struck out; Zach Dygert was hit by a pitch, putting the winning run on first. But Cory Rupert made the final out on a fly ball to left center. It was a valiant effort by the All-Americans, but they came up one run short. Columbus racked up 11 hits in the game, along with 4 walks, 3 of them given out by Matt Jordan. Good job by the All-Americans to make the Grand Lake relievers work hard instead of first-pitch hacking.

Columbus currently stands in 3rd place, 5.5 games back of the Cincinnati Steam, winners of 8 straight. They won yet another 1-run game last night, defeating Xenia 5-4.


The All-Americans take on Lake Erie (8-8) tonight at 7 PM at Bill Davis Stadium. Pretty sure Brenden Stines will be pitching for the All-Americans.

The All-Star game is this weekend in Cincinnati; I'll write about the players the All-Americans will be sending to the game and will also put together some stats (the ones on the league site are pretty hard to read).