ANTWERP — Lincolnview’s defense fell apart in the top of the seventh, opening the door for Antwerp to rally with three runs and take a 6-4 non-conference baseball victory over the Lancers at Booster Field Saturday morning.
“Unfortunately, errors are a part of baseball,” Lincolnview head coach Roger Salisbury noted. “Our defense was OK today until that last inning. Our defense has been OK so far this spring — until that last inning.”
Though the game was in Antwerp, the Archers (2-1) were the visitors on the scoreboard.
Chris Boyd (0-2) came in to relieve starter Jordan Simpson (6 innings, 5 hits, 3 runs, 2 earned, 4 bases-on-balls, 4 strikeouts) in the top of the seventh. Tony Smith (2-for-3, 2 runs scored) started it with a single and a walk to Tommy Derck followed. Mitch Fowler grounded to third but an error on the play allowed his predecessors to hustle in to score, putting him at second. An out later, he moved up to third on a bouncer by Seth Smith. Kyle North grounded to third but the second error of the frame allowed Fowler to cross home base for a 6-4 edge.
“It was Jordan’s first varsity start and he did extremely well. He gave us all he had toay,” Salisbury continued. “When he came into the dugout after the sixth, he told us he was done. When we got the lead in the bottom half, we decided to bring in Chris. It was one of those innings but our pitching has been a positive so far. We had one bad outing versus Fort Recovery and they are a great team.”
Lincolnview (1-2) got Simpson the lead in the bottom of the sixth thanks to a run-scoring single by Mike Evans (2-for-3), scoring Kory Thatcher, who’d gotten on with a leadoff double; and single by Roy Salisbury (2-for-3), plating Evans.
Lincolnview went up 1-0 in the second frame on consecutive singles by Evans, Salisbury and John Young.
The Archers tacked a 3 spot up in the third with a run-scoring liner by Tony Smith and the big blow being a 2-run, 2-out base hit to center by Fowler.
Boyd reduced that deficit to 3-2 with a no-doubter solo shot over the left-field fence in the fourth.
Coach Salisbury figures his offense needs to be more consistent after the firstw eek of the campaign.
“We got some big hits against Fort Jennings the other day but we haven’t done it on a consistent basis so far. That’s what we need to work on, as well as avoiding the lapses in the field, ” he added.
Lincolnview opens Northwest Conference baseball action this afternoon on the road at Jefferson. First pitch is 5 p.m.