HINESBURG, Vt. — The Clinton County Junior Mariners held leads in both of their games Saturday.
As it turned out, however, the Mariners had to work hard just to get a split on the day.
They dropped a 9-6 decision to the Ottawa Prospects before recording a 5-4 victory over the Vermont Jays in the Summer Showdown Tournament hosted by the Vermont Outlaws.
The Mariners play at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. today against opponents to be determined.
“We held the lead in both games and didn’t play bad baseball, except for the one inning in our first game,” Mariners coach Gary Duquette said.
The Mariners held a 5-0 lead after two innings against Ottawa and everything was going well when Clinton County took a 6-1 advantage into the fifth.
But Ottawa broke loose for seven runs to rally from behind and added another run in the seventh.
“Everything was going great until that inning,” said Duquette. “We made three errors and walked four in the inning. Out of their nine runs in the game, only four of them were earned.”
Adam Goldfarb led the Mariners with two singles, while Justin Stevens added a double and Tanner Rascoe a 2-run single.
Against the Jays, the Mariners broke a 2-all tie with two runs in the bottom of the fifth and added another in the sixth for a 5-2 lead.
But Clinton County had to use three pitchers in the top of the seventh when the Jays scored two runs and left the bases loaded.
Three walks and two hit batsmen plated two runs for the Jays and resulted in the sacks full and one out.
Rascoe then took over and struck out the next two batters to end the threat and record the save. Ryan Meyer pitched into the seventh to get the win.
“We can’t defend walks or hit batsmen,” said Duquette. “Rascoe had played center in both games, and I didn’t want to use him today on the mound. But as it turns out, we needed to.”
Clinton County pitchers combined to walk 12 in the two games.
Stevens and Blake Altizer rapped out two hits each for the Mariners (14-16), who had eight hits in all. Rascoe added a double.
—
Ottawa 9, Mariners 6
Ottawa 000 170 1 — 9 5 1
Mariners 140 100 0 — 6 7 3
MacArthur, Egert (3), Lewis (6) and Charon. Q. Barber, J. Barber (6) and Tolosky, Altizer (5). WP- Egert. LP- Q. Barber. 2B- Stevens (M). 3B- Charon (O).
—
Mariners 5, Jays 4
Jays 010 010 2 — 4 3 2
Mariners 200 021 x — 5 8 1
Richardson, Connor (3), McAllister (5) and Charon. Meyer, Delello (7), Rascoe (7) and Altizer. WP- Meyer. LP- Connor. Sv- Rascoe. 2B- Rascoe (M).
