Beachwood Baseball Sweeps Double-Header Against John Marshall

Beachwood let a 4-0 lead slip away, then rallied for four runs in the bottom of the sixth to seal the 8-6 victory over John Marshall in game two of Saturday’s double-header. The Bison won the first game 10-0 in five innings.

“We let them hang around and then we got a couple of bad breaks,” Beachwood head coach Ben Singer said. “But the guys responded to it and took the lead back.”

The Bison were cruising through the afternoon coming off a dominating game one. Pitcher Todd Goldberg was lights out through the first three innings of game two, fanning six with just three walks and a hit.

Beachwood’s bats built a 4-0 lead in that span. Zach Smith’s grounder through second base scored Matt Levine and Ryan Moss in the first inning. Then in the second, Levine hit a sacrifice fly to left that scored Jake Weiss. Goldberg helped his own cause in the third thanks to an error on John Marshall second baseman Anthony Nichols that scored Josh Schwarz from first base.

Goldberg ran into trouble during the fourth inning. Brandon Evans sent a liner over second base that scored Christopher Grillo and Jeremiah Thomsen. Then in the fifth, four John Marshall hits resulted in three runs highlighted by Grillo’s crushing shot into left that scored Ricardo Diaz and Virgil Brown. Jeff Murtaugh relieved Goldberg and struck out Nichols to end the inning. Goldberg ended the day allowing seven hits, walking four with seven strikeouts.

John Marshall added another run in the sixth, pushing their lead to 6-4. Max Siegel led off the sixth for the Bison and reached first with a beautiful bunt down the third-base line. Then Levine had a shot over second that scored Siegel. Moss walked and Smith drove in Levine to tie the game. Schwarz sent a grounder down the first-base line, breaking the tie by scoring Moss. Goldberg then grounded into a fielder’s choice, but scored Smith.

Levine closed out the game for the Bison with a one-two-three seventh, striking out two.

“Guys made a few mistakes but I thought we played pretty well even though it was a loss,” John Marshall head coach Marcus Morrison said.

Beachwood had control the whole way through game one. Smith pitched lights out, striking out seven and walking five in a one-hit shutout. Beachwood led 2-0 going into the fifth inning and poured on eight more runs off of four hits and five walks.

“We did a nice job waiting for our pitch that inning,” Singer said. “At the beginning of the game we weren’t having good at bats.”

John Marshall pitchers walked a total of nine batters in game one and five in game two.

“It has to do with a lack of seeing teams and facing batters,” Marshall said. “Our pitchers throw but it’s not the same as throwing in a game.”

Beachwood plays every day this week thanks to the April showers. The Bison square off with Hawken three times, at home Monday and Thursday with a road game Tuesday. Beachwood faces Cardinal at home on Wednesday then travels to Orange on Friday. All weekday games are slated for 4:30 p.m.

The Bison cap off their week Saturday with a 2 p.m. home game against Gilmour. Check highschoolsports.net for any changes in game times or locations due to weather.