PLATTSBURGH — The Clinton County Senior Mariners have played some good baseball this season.
Wednesday’s game against Essex Post No. 91, however, won’t be included on the season’s highlight reel.
The Vermonters rapped out 13 hits and took advantage of six Mariners errors on the way to a 7-4 victory in American Legion play at Lefty Wilson Field.
The outcome — but more importantly the effort — left Clinton County coach John Flynn in a bad mood after the game.
“One of the rules that I have as a coach is to play hard,” said Flynn. “Nobody played hard tonight. That’s totally unacceptable and it won’t happen again.
“It was a waste of my time tonight. For some reason, we don’t play as hard in games that don’t count as much. But we have no excuse for that.”
Essex took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third and held the lead the rest of the way. The Vermonters had a 4-0 lead when the Mariners scored twice in the fourth. Essex made it 6-2 in the sixth before Clinton County answered with two in its home half of the inning.
That would be as close as the Mariners would get.
Josh Baez had a big night offensively for Essex by going 5-for-5. Jack Valley added three hits, including a double, and Steve Jurkiewicz chipped in with two hits. Greg Gosselin allowed two runs over the first five innings to get the pitching win.
Robby Knowles led the Mariners with two hits, while C.J. Worley, Will Flynn and Kasey Favreau each added one. Knowles, Worley and Flynn drove in a run apiece. Clinton County used four pitchers.
“I wasn’t happy with anyone tonight,” said Flynn.
The Mariners (12-5) leave on Friday for Pennsylvania to take part in the Mansfield University Tournament on Saturday and Sunday.
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Essex 7, Mariners 4
Essex 001 212 1 — 7 13 1
Mariners 000 022 0 — 4 5 6
Gosselin, Tanguay (6), Guild (7) and Puleo. Favreau, Weightman (3), Richards (5), Flynn (6) and Worley. WP- Gosselin. LP- Favreau. 2B- Valley (E).
