Tigers take two from Jay

Sometimes pitchers have off days.
Teams can, too.
Saturday was one of those days for the Patriots.
A number of misplays on defense and pitchers who struggled to find the strike zone turned into two losses as the Hagerstown Tigers swept the Jay County High School baseball team at Don E. Selvey Field.
“Too many errors. Too many walks,” said JCHS coach Lea Selvey, whose team dropped game one 18-6 in six innings and fell 7-6 in the second game. “Pretty much a recipe for disaster.”
Freshman Wyatt Geesaman shouldered the loss in the first game. He gave up seven runs, five of which were earned, on just two hits. He walked three and struck out one. The righty had a clean first inning, not allowing a run and leaving runners at the corners, but he had difficulty finding the strike zone in the second. He walked two batters, allowed five runs and two hits as the Patriots (7-7) fell behind 5-1.
Jay County was back in contention after the second inning, scoring five times. Ryan Schlechty and Geesaman both had RBI singles, and Jacob Geesaman brought in another run when he was hit by a pitch with bases loaded, and two batters later Ethan Myers hit a two-run single to put the Patriots ahead 6-5.
But they didn’t get a runner to second base again as Hagerstown reliever Brett Burns allowed just one hit, struck out two and walked one in five innings of relief of Drew Pyle, who didn’t get out of the second inning.
Hagerstown (12-3) took the lead with two runs in the third, marking the end of Wyatt Geesaman’s outing. Myers came in for the fourth and failed to record an out, allowing five unearned runs on four Patriot errors. Gaven Hare pitched the final three frames.
“The first game they just had one of those games where nothing could go right,” said Tiger coach Brad Catey. “I thought we had an excellent outing. Put the ball in play a lot. I thought we took advantage of their mistakes.”
The Patriots totaled eight errors in game one, and they committed four more in the second game, which allowed the Tigers to chip away at an early deficit.
Jacob Geesaman hit a sacrifice fly to score Schlechty in the bottom of the first inning, giving Jay County a 1-0 advantage. Two Tiger errors plated two more runs for the home team, which led 3-0 after one inning and appeared to put the struggles from the first game behind it.
During the second inning, Myers hit an RBI single and Josh Vaughn followed with a sacrifice fly to left field as the Patriots pushed the score to 5-0.
JCHS starter Jake Myers had pitched well, leaving runners at the corners in the first inning and sitting down the Tigers in order in the second, including back-to-back strikeouts.
The junior finished with 11 punchouts and two walks.
But the demons from game one returned in the third inning as the Tigers scored two runs on two Patriot errors, then added two more runs in the fourth that were aided by another misplay in the field.
“Seems like we’re trying too hard to make a play,” Selvey said. “I think (the defense) felt comfortable behind Jake. I could see it coming … we scored the first two innings and then didn’t do much (for an) effort in the third and fourth.
“We had to at least answer back and we didn’t. Momentum got on their side.”
Hagerstown took a 7-5 lead in the fifth thanks to a little patience at the plate. After Trent Weiss led off the frame by reaching on an error, he took second on a passed ball and swiped third base. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases, and a passed ball scored the first run of the inning.
After a pop out to short and a strikeout, it looked as if Myers was going to get out of the frame with little damage, but Frank Bush hit a two-run double to the gap in left-center field to put the Tigers on top.
“Jake just about got out of a jam but the kid had a double,” Selvey said. “(Myers) battled and has pitched well. Eleven Ks and two walks … (Hagerstown) did a pretty good job of putting the ball in play with two strikes.
“That is how dominating Jake can be but we didn’t give him any help defensively.”
Ethan Myers drove in three total runs and had two hits on the day. Wyatt Geesaman and Schlechty both had two hits, and Jacob Geesaman tallied two RBIs.
“We scored enough,” Selvey said. “Can’t complain about the offense. We ought to be able to win games when we score (six) runs.”