Baseball

The Griffith Generals were again victorious in extra innings with Friday's 8-5 win over the Northwest Indiana Oilmen in the tenth inning. 

 

Scoring was hard to come by in the early innings, however, the Oilmen scored one run in the opening frame from an error.

 

Five innings later, in the top of the sixth inning, Tripp Davis took a pitch for a ride over the left-field wall with one runner on base, putting the Generals ahead 2-1. 

 

The Generals added two more runs in the eighth inning but were outdone by the Oilmen in the bottom of the frame by three runs effectively tying the game at 4-4. 

 

The Generals took the lead in the bottom of the ninth with a Connor Jerkatis single to right field. However, the Oilmen again tied the game in the next half-inning when Dasaan Lee walked. 

 

In the tenth, the Generals scored three runs to take an 8-5 lead, two of the runs were scored on a Graham Gonzalez single. 

 

Ayden Elixson retook the mound for the bottom of the tenth inning and sat the Oilmen batters down to earn the win for the Generals.

 

"[I just have to] Throw strikes, and get back in the dugout," said Elixson.

 

Friday night's game was the second straight extra-innings game for the Generals to start the second half of the season, both games resulted in wins. Friday night was also the second extra-innings win over the Oilmen this season.

 

Draza Dupor started on the rubber for the Generals tossing six innings allowing one run off of two hits, while striking out six and walking three. Elixson threw one and one-third innings of shutout ball for the Generals in relief. Elixson gave up zero hits. 

 

RJ Bergren started on the hill for the Oilmen. The starter gave up two runs, on Davis' home run, off of four hits. Bergren struck out four Generals batters and walked four. 

 

The Generals tacked on 12 hits in the game, Elixson and Jerkatis each collected three hits for the Generals. Gonzalez, Jerkatis, and Davis each drove in two runs. The Generals amassed eight walks throughout the game. 

 

The Generals improve to 10-14 and are eight games back of the second-place Elkhart County Miracle. 

 

Griffith's next game is Sunday against the Indiana Panthers in Highland at 7 p.m.

 

 

 

Written by Jon Lieber.