Joes Rally to Take Both Games in Doubleheader

The Hamilton Joes played a doubleheader against the Flag City Sluggers as a result of the weather yesterday. The Joes were able to find a way to win both close games.

Game one was cut off at four and a half innings played. It was a 1-0 ballgame with the Joes leading at this point. Bottom of the sixth, and the Sluggers got their leadoff man, Jovanny Skrelja, aboard to start the inning.  Skrelja would take second on a wild pitch and go to third on a base hit from Drew Tajblik. Brett Reed would reach base on a throwing error by Alex Koelling, allowing both runners to score. Slugger would quickly load the bases with a base hit by Trenton Smith and a walk by Atticus Huffstutler.  Miles Mitchell would ground out to first with no play at the plate for the first out. Kaden Ford was intentionally walked to reload the bases. Braden Sprague would ground out to third to score another run. Finally, Gino Williams would single down the right field line to bring in two runs to bring the score to 6-1.

The Joes dug themselves quite a hole that inning but didn’t fold. Joes would get back on the board in the top half of the eighth inning with Owen McKoon driving in Noah Kubasky on a single. Brady Bowen would follow that with another base hit that brought in a run. Ryder Kirtly was up next, and he was able to beat out a double play, which would score McKoon. Joes would still trail 6-4 but made it a new ballgame. Caden Clark was able to shut out the Sluggers in the bottom half to bring it to the top of the ninth. Joes would quickly be down two outs in three batters, with Noah Kubasky being the only one who reached. McKoon would single again on the first pitch of the at-bat to score Kubasky. Bowen would keep it alive with a booming double to tie the game at six. AJ Beggs would be up next, and he was able to reach on an error that brought around Bowen for the lead, 7-6. Bowen would then come into pitch, and he had a one-two-three inning to steal a win in game one of the doubleheader. 

Game two would start about 40 minutes later, and the long-awaited Caleb Drissen would take the mound in his first appearance of the year. The Joes' offence would hit around the lineup to give Drissen the run support in the second. Gavin Brewer would lead off the inning with a single. Kamden McAlpin would reach on an error, which allowed Brewer to get to third. Ryder Kirtley would score Brewer on a sacrifice fly. AJ Beggs was up next, and he would get hit by a pitch to reach base.  Alex Koelling would draw a walk to load the bases. Another sacrifice fly by McAlpin would score another run. Bowen was able to draw a walk to load the bases again. Joes were finally able to break through with a single from Kubasky that scored two and another single by Preston Zumwalt to score another. Joes would lead 5-0. 

Drissen was solid in his first appearance, being able to get through four innings, but struggled a little bit with command in that fourth inning. Drissen allowed three walks that inning, two of them to Mitchell and Skrelja. Both of them would come around to score on a base hit from Jimmy LaForce. Caden Clark would come in for his second game in a day and only allow one more run to score from a Huffstutler double, bringing the score to 5-3. 

Top of the sixth would be another big inning for the Joes' offence. Joes were able to load the bases early in the inning from walks, which allowed Zumwalt and Brewer to drive in runs. AJ Gundler was able to hit a two-run single to increase the lead. Kirtley would wrap up the scoring of the inning with a sacrifice fly to score Brewer to end the Joes' scoring. Joes would lead 10-3. 

Bottom of seven would get interesting with the first four Sluggers batters reaching, but the Joes were able to close it out with a final score of 10-8. Joes will play the final game of the series at Foundation Field today against the Sluggers at 7:05 p.m.