LEXINGTON — The Arrows won in spite of themselves.
On a night when ace Luke Bryant didn’t have his best stuff and Ashland had almost as many errors (six) as base hits (seven), coach Rick Gough’s squad stitched together a stunning seventh-inning rally for a 7-6 Ohio Cardinal Conference win at Lexington.
The Arrows (3-4, 3-2) trailed 6-0 going into the top of the seventh only to score seven runs in their final at bat. Tyler Holt, who fanned for the first out earlier in the inning, plated the game-tying and go-ahead runs with a single to center off Zian Rhodes, the third Lex pitcher of the inning.
“I’ve been fortunate enough to coach about 700 high school baseball games and that’s probably the biggest comeback I’ve ever been a part of,” Gough said. “I’ve been waiting all season long for our team to wake up and hopefully now they have. Now they know what they are capable of.”
The reigning OCC Pitcher of the Year, Bryant surrendered three runs in the bottom of the first and another in the second. The Arrows didn’t do the hard-throwing right-hander any favors, committing a pair of errors in the first and two more in the second.
“We got off to a rough start today and kind of hung our heads a little bit,” Gough said. “It took us six innings for us to wake up.”
Lex (3-5, 2-3) chased Bryant in the bottom of the sixth, scoring two more runs to take a 6-0 lead. Bryant went 5.2 innings, striking out seven and walking three. Only two of the six runs he surrendered were earned.
Ashland finally got to Lex starter Colton Murfield in the top of the seventh. Alex Grissinger led off the inning with a double before Murfield struck out Holt for the first out of the frame. Back-to-back errors by the Minutemen allowed Grissinger to score to make it 6-1. A bunt base hit by Jon Metzger loaded the bases and brought an end to Murfield’s outing. He was replaced by Landon Hamilton, who faced three batters without recording an out.
A wild pitch, an RBI-single off the bat of Ethan Bunce and a bases-loaded walk made the score 6-4 and brought Lex skipper Jeff Strickler out of the dugout to make another pitching change.
Rhodes came on and struck out the first man he faced before issuing a bases-loaded walk to Grissinger, making the score 6-5 and bringing Holt to the plate for the second time in the inning. Holt fell behind 0-2 before battling back and rapping a solid single up the middle to bring home Bunce and Bryant with the tying and go-ahead runs.
“That just shouldn’t have happened,” Strickler said. “We started the inning off with a couple of errors and then we couldn’t throw strikes. Those are the two things that can’t happen when you have a six-run lead in the last inning.
“We did a lot of good things. We played well enough to win for six innings and then it got away from us in the seventh.”
Metzger had three of Ashland’s seven hits. Grissinger’s seventh-inning double was the Arrows’ only extra-base hit.
Markale Martin had two hits for the Minutemen, including a double. Donovan Legron doubled, while leadoff man Chance Basilone was 1-for-1 with a pair of walks and two runs scored. Braden Mumaw knocked in a pair of runs.
Braiden Rhoades picked up the win in relief of Bryant. The left-hander surrendered just one hit and struck out one in 1.1 innings of work.
Murfield went 6.1 innings for the Minutemen, giving up four run on five hits while striking out seven and waking one. Hamilton took the loss, allowing three earned runs on a hit and two walks.
The teams will complete the home-and-home series Wednesday at Ashland.
“We’ll see how we bounce back,” Strickler said. “It’s one of those about not having any seniors on the team. You’ve got to have some juniors take up leadership roles.”
