McCaskey notches first win of season over skidding baseball team, which has lost six of seven

Friday afternoon figured to be a great opportunity for the scuffling Pioneers' baseball team, which had lost five of its previous six games, to pick up an easy win over an opponent who had not won all season and head into the weekend on a high note. Instead, they relinquished a three-run lead in the final inning and lost their sixth game in seven chances, giving McCaskey its first win of the season.
Kris Pirozzi hit in the leadoff spot and drove in two of the team's four runs
Garrett Groshong, who was coming off a dominant start wherein he threw a complete game shutout, took the hill for the Pioneers and got through the ever-challenging first inning unscathed. Then, the Pioneers, who have struggled to score runs, brought one home in the first inning when Connor Brown, who hit in the two-hole after starting the season in the nine-hole, scored on a Ben Rhoades RBI single to give L-S a 1-0 lead.

Groshong worked out of a jam in the second inning thanks to some help from his defense throwing out runners on the basepaths, and allowed just one run that the team quickly earned back in the bottom of the second.

Kris Pirozzi, the new leadoff hitter, scored two on an RBI double and then scored when Brown singled, allowing the Pioneers to open a 4-1 advantage.

A pitcher's duel ensued as neither team put more than one runner on base through the sixth inning with the exception of the bottom of the third when L-S's scoring opportunity was erased with a double play.
Sophomore Luke "Bubba" Weigel got his first varsity start
at catcher and seemed to fare well behind the plate

Entering the seventh inning, Groshong was cruising on the hill and needed only three outs to earn his second win of the season and give the Pioneers the pleasant weekend for which they had hoped.

The wheels came off.

Groshong recorded two outs, but left runners on first and second as L-S manager Keith Martin brought in untested junior Jared Bronstetter to try to record the final out.

It did not work out well as the Red Tornadoes scored four consecutive runs (all with two outs) to take a one-run lead before Alec Gordley came in and notched a strikeout to give the Pioneers a chance to score and at the very least send the game into extra innings.

Instead, it was three up and three down for the dejected L-S squad, which fell to 5-8 on the season and now ranks 19th out of 37 teams in the District 3 AAA power rankings.

The team is back at it on Monday when it travels to Millersville to face Penn Manor, who is 10-1 and second in Class AAAA of District 3.

View a full gallery of photos via Google Photos

--Ashley Zehr, LSNews.org Baseball Reporter; Photos by Lauren Mast, LSNews.org Director of Sports Photography

Edited: BP

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