Granby Memorial's Bats Come Alive in Victory Over SMSA

The baseball team’s bats finally came alive to give its pitching some breathing room in a 9-1 victory over the Sports Medical Sciences Academy in Granby on Wednesday afternoon.

Jake Nervesen (3-for-4, home run, three RBIs, two runs scored) broke the game open with an inside-the-park home run to lead off the bottom of the fifth to put the Bears up 5-1. Stephen Blake was 3-for-3 with two RBIS and a run scored (see accompanying video), Dawson Tefft was 2-for-3 with an RBI and a run scored, and leadoff batter Alex Rocheleau reached base all four times he batted (two singles, two HBPs).

The offensive explosion was most welcome for the Bears, who have found themselves in their share of close games this year.

“We’ve been struggling to score runs,” Granby Memorial head coach Chris Saunders said. “It was big today for us to give our pitchers a little breathing room. We’ve been in a lot of tight games and it’s like every pitch is in a critical situation. It was nice to have some run support and it was nice to get a little action to coach third base today.”

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Pitcher Matt Hartman overcame some shakiness in the early going and finished with the following line: six innings pitched, one earned run, four hits, four walks and 11 strikeouts.

Hartman worked his way out of trouble in the first three innings, during which he issued all four of his walks, before settling down in the fourth, fifth and sixth.

At one point he retired eight straight batters, including five in a row, spanning from the third to the fifth innings.

“He pitched a fine game,” Saunders said. “This is the second game in a row that he’s pitched an outstanding game. He did hit a groove at one point … and was hitting his spots with velocity. He just threw a good game.

“He and his catcher Austin Gilbert mixed in some nice pitches and kept batters off balance. When it was time to attack with the hard stuff, he did.”

Narvesen came on in relief in the seventh inning and achieved a rarity, striking out four batters in the frame when one of the strikeout victims reached first after swinging and missing at a third strike with the ball winding up reaching the backstop. (See the video of the last pitch of all four strikeouts.)

SMSA starting pitcher Daunte Brinkley pitched well for 4 ⅔ innings, though his defense was a bit porous.

“I think he was frustrated because he was not getting too many calls,” Tigers head coach Josh Svobida said. “That’s part of the game and you have to battle through that. Our bats didn’t really show up all day.”

John Gegetskas drove in the Tigers’ only run in the third inning with a single that plated Austin Melendez to make it 3-1. Granby Memorial responded by scoring the next six runs.

With the victory, the Bears got back to .500 on the year with a record of 7-7, while SMSA fell to 2-13.