Irish Pick Up Victory Over Ord In Road Game

The O’Neill Pinnacle Bank Irish Seniors went on the road last Thursday night to Ord and went home from the 95-degree heat 9-4 in the 9-inning game.

“This was a good win in nine innings over Ord. We hit the ball well throughout the game, but hit many balls right at them and stranded a few runners on base,” said O’Neill coach Greg Appleby. “Perez had a great start on the mound, and when Eddie Rodriguez came in, he was really good in completely shutting Ord down. Our defense was good with no errors and we had an explosive inning in the ninth to clinch the ‘W.’”

The Irish improved their season mark to 16-3 with the victory. The Irish scored one in the top of the first as Francicso Perez scored on a base hit from sweet swinging Grady Semin. However, Ord answered in the bottom of the first with two runs scoring as the first two men reached base via a walk and hit batsman and came in to score on a double to left-center.

Francisco Perez, in his first start on the mound, settled down and struck out the final two Ord hitters in the first inning. Perez went four strong innings from the mound before turning it over to Eddie Rodriguez, who was sharp in shutting down the final 13 Ord hitters with the help of a pickoff at first base and when catcher Perez threw out a would-be stealer at second base.

The Irish bats scored two in the third inning off of hits from Alex Thramer and Perez, and an RBI single from Jacob Long. Thramer scored again in the fifth with a leadoff single and on an RBI single from Blake Krysl. No scoring took place in the next three innings, but the Irish exploded in the ninth with leadoff hits from Justin Appleby, Thramer, Semin and Krysl. The Irish plated five in the ninth to secure the victory.

Alex Thamer and Grady Semin each went 3-for-5 from the plate to pace the 13-hit attack for the Irish. Two hits each came from Krysl and Long, and Appleby, Perez and Tye Hilker would each have one hit. Zero errors on defense was impressive with Dennis Herrera making some catches in right fi eld late in the game, as well as Jacob Long with a nice catch on a long shot to left field.