Sugar Beets give up 11 runs in back to back innings en route to 16-7 loss to St. Clair Green Giants

 

The Saginaw Sugar Beets (7-14-0) gave up 4-runs in the fourth and another 7-runs in the fifth inning, en route to a 16-7 loss to the St. Clair (Windsor, ON) Green Giants (19-11-0) at Lacasse Park in Tecumseh, ON tonight.

 

The Beets jumped out to an early lead when Cooper Marshall (Western Michigan University) crushed a 1-out solo home run, his sixth of the season, for a 1-0 Beets lead in the first, while adding another run in the second when Ryan Missal (Western Michigan University) drove in Matthew Houle (Davenport University) with an RBI-single in the top of the second for a 2-0 Saginaw lead. 

 

St. Clair answered in the third when second baseman Gavin Homer (Kelogg Community College) scored on a wild pitch, while Green Giants DH William Kleffner (Ohio State University) was driven in on a sac fly RBI, before RF Matthew Ornelia (Palomar College) drove in CF Carter Mossey (Otera Junior College) to give St. Clair a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the third inning.

 

Saginaw would regain the lead in the next inning when Houle managed to score after Sean Fannon (Lawrence Tech) reached on an infield error, before Max Trucks (Alma College) scored on a sac fly RBI off the bat of Missal for a 4-3 Beets lead in the top of the fourth inning. 

 

The Green Giants pulled ahead in the bottom half of the fourth when Ornelia drove in Kleffner with an RBI-single, while third baseman Gibson Krzeminski (Iowa Western CC) drove in Mossey and St. Clair shortstop Kevin Dion (St. Clair College of Canada) with a 2-RBI single, before Ornelia was then driven in on an RBI-single off the bat of LF Rodrigo Duluc (Rice University) for a 7-4 Green Giants lead in the bottom of the fourth inning.

 

Saginaw scored another run in the fifth when Fannon singled to score Brady Wood (Adrian College) to cut the St. Clair lead to 7-5 in the top of the fifth inning.

 

St. Clair would break the game wide open in the bottom half of the inning, exploding for 7-unanswered runs to take a 14-5 lead after five innings of play, before tacking on another 2-runs in the eighth when Mossey drove in Green Giants catcher Alex Crump (Kelogg Community College) and Dion with a 2-RBI-single for a 16-5 lead in the bottom of the eighth inning.

 

For good measure, the Beets managed to plate a couple runs in the final inning when Houle drove in former Standish Sterling standout Sean O'Keefe (Adrian College) and Gaosh Williams (Central Michigan University) cutting the St. Clair lead to 16-7 in the top of the ninth inning.

 

Former Frankenmuth pitcher Jack Tagget (Kalamazoo College) was charged with the loss for the Beets after giving up 4-runs on 4-hits and 3-walks, while striking out 1-batter through 2-innings of relief. 

 

Houle finished 3 for 4 with 2-RBI's and 2-runs scored, followed by O'Keefe, who was 2 for 2 with 1-run scored to pace the Saginaw offense, followed by Wood, who was 2 for 3 with 1-run scored, along with Trucks, who finished 2 for 5 with 1-run scored and Marshall, who was 1 for 1 with the solo home run. 

 

The Sugar Beets and Green Giants will be back at it again right back at Lacasse Park at 3:05 pm tomorrow afternoon.