Joes Lose Series But Avoid Sweep to Clippers

The Hamilton Joes hosted the Muskegon Clippers in a doubleheader to finish the yearly series. 

Game one would start an hour early in an attempt to get the Clippers on the road a little earlier. Zeros would flood the board until the top of the third when Alex Gay would get two quick strikeouts and fall into trouble with a single and two walks to load the bases. He would get pulled for Caden Clark to try and get out of the jam. Clark would hit Ben Meyers with his first pitch in the ballgame, and that would score the game’s first run. Clark would get out of the inning after that; the Clippers would lead 1-0.

Carter Sellers would come into the game in the top of the fourth, and he would struggle to find the zone. Sellers would walk the bases loaded and walk in another run. His day would be over after that, and Carter Williamson would enter the game. He would hit the first batter he faced as well to score another run. He would get a double play, but another run would come to score. The self-inflicted damage from the Joes would get the Clippers out in front 4-0.

Joes would get one back in the bottom half of the inning with a groundout from Preston Zumwalt to score Brady Bowen. That's all the Joes would manage to bring home as they again struggled with runners on. AJ Park, the starting pitcher for the Clippers, was lights out. He went six innings, only allowing three hits and six strikeouts. Joe's pitching, on the other hand, wasn’t good in game one. They allowed nine walks and four hit-by-pitches. Joes would fall in game one 6-2. 

Game two got off to a much better start with the Joes striking first with a sacrifice fly from AJ Gundler in the bottom of the second. The top of the third would get starting pitcher Dean Brown in a little bit of trouble with a walk from Dalton Dick and a base hit from Drake Roa. They would execute a double steal to put both men in scoring position. Kaden Howard would hit a fly ball to left, AJ Beggs got under it, caught it, and fired the ball to home to gun down Dick at the plate to save a run.

Joes used that moment the rest of the game. Owen McKoon would score on a wild pitch the next inning to increase the lead to two. That was all Dean Brown needed in his outing, going five and two-thirds, with six strikeouts and an earned run. Joes would give him some more run support in the fourth. Brewer would single, and Alec Halter and Gundler would walk to load the bases. Two fielder's choices would prevent runs from scoring but kept the bases loaded for Ryder Kirtley. He would fight off pitches and get his pitch and drive it to the wall in right field to clear the bases. Joes would lead 5-0.

Joes would tack on some extra runs in the later stages of the ball game and were able to close it out 8-3. Joe's has two days off, then it's off to Michigan to play the Michigan Monarchs in a four-game set starting on Tuesday.