Knoch rally falls short
Down to its final out against Burrell at Michelle Krill Field at Historic Pullman Park Tuesday night, Knoch had both the tying and winning runs on the basepaths.
They weren’t to leave their spots, however, as the Knights’ seventh-inning comeback bid was cut just short shortly thereafter. Knoch was defeated, 5-4, in baseball action after being held scoreless through 6.1 frames.
Meanwhile, the Bucs got out to an early advantage by getting on the scoreboard in three of the first four innings. Their starting pitcher, Joe Druga, struck out six of the Knights’ first nine batters and hit one-out RBI singles in both the first and third innings.
Knoch waited until the last possible moment to get something going.
Jacob Wagner kicked off the bottom half of the seventh with a single before Jacob Boris was fanned. Dathan Gillis and Angelo DeLeonardis worked free passes to load the bases, then Burrell reliever Austin McLafferty was lifted in favor of Stone in the middle of Brady Wozniak’s at-bat. He got Wozniak to fly out on his first offering.
Wagner scored on a Sutton walk, Gillis after Isaac Roddy was hit by a pitch, and Anthony Grafton singled to tally another pair.
“We woke up a little bit,” Knoch coach Bill Stoops said. “We were sleeping the whole game.”
Stone won the battle that followed, setting Jacob Stallsmith down on strikes to close it out.
“It got a little hairy there at the end,” Spohn said. “I was just hoping that we’d throw strikes. The zone got a little tighter towards the end there. It made it a little bit more interesting.”
Wasted opportunities came back to haunt Knoch, which stranded runners on second and third in the opening frame. Then, no Knight got past first until Eli Sutton stood on second with no outs in the sixth. The Bucs’ Druga retired the next three, his 10th punchout of the night being bookended by a pair of infield groundouts.
“In a game like that, that comes back and that hurts,” Sutton said. “We’re definitely going to work a little more on the two-strike side and getting balls in play … (When) those two runs that you leave on early are the difference in a ballgame like that, that definitely adds to the frustration.”
Druga allowed the Knights only two base hits in his six innings pitched. At one point, he turned away nine of 11 he faced.
“His curveball wasn’t a strike, but we made it a strike,” Stoops said. “I kept saying, ‘First pitch, dead-red. First pitch, dead-red. You get the fastball and then you’re going to come back and get the Uncle Charlie.’ We’re taking too many pitches.
“We’ve just got to know the strike zone a little better and let the curveball go.”
The Knights won’t have to wait long to get their shot at redemption. They’ll visit Burrell for the second game of a section series Wednesday.
Burrell 102 200 0 – 5 12 0
Knoch 000 000 4 – 4 4 1
W: Joe Druga 6IP (10K, 2BB). L: Angelo DeLeonardis 4IP (4K, 2BB)
Burrell (2-4): Ryan Bates 2-1B RBI, Joe Druga 2-1B 2-RBI, Phil Walsh 2-1B RBI, Nolan Bowser 2B 1B RBI, Tristain Kenzovich 2B, Issac Lacinski 1B, Dylan McKillap 1B, Austin McLafferty 1B
Knoch (3-2): Eli Sutton 2B, Luke Priester 1B, Jacob Wagner 1B, Anthony Grafton 1B 2-RBI
Wednesday: Knoch vs. Burrell, 4 p.m.
