PBR Spotlight Game: No. 1 Grove City survives Worthington Kilbourne

By Travis Cox

No. 1 seed Grove City rallied for a comeback win against Worthington Kilbourne in a District semi-final game.

Worthington Kilbourne jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the second inning.  Junior Tom Scantland and Sophomore Jake Niggemeyer, OSU recruit started the inning with back to back singles.  Failed bunt attempt by the Wolves was followed by a RBI double by Connor Flaherty and a RBI single by Junior Ben Paulin with a drawn in infield. 

The score stayed at 2-0 as Junior Brian Sommers kept the Greyhound offense in check for the first three innings.

After trading runs over the next two innings, Kilbourne still held a small lead of 3-2.  However, Sommers, who was pitching on short rest was wearing down.  Through 5 innings the right-hander had only given up 4 hits to the high powered Grove City offense. 

In the bottom of the 6^th with the score still 3-2, Kilbourne went to the bullpen for Hayden Shennefield.  The new pitcher brought some life to the Greyhound bats.    

Highly touted catcher Drew Nankivell led off the bottom of sixth with a sharp single to right-center, Brandon Gooch reached on a base hit bunt and pitcher Mitchell Stephens was hit by a pitch.

With the bases loaded and no outs, first baseman Drew Artrip ripped a single to center field, which was mishandled by Kilbourne’s Danny Dutko.  The error cleared the bases and gave Grove City a 5-3 lead. 

This was all that pitcher Mitchell Stephens needed.  The senior who did not have his best stuff on the day battled for a complete game win.  Stephens scattered 7 hits and had 4 strikeouts in his complete game performance.

No. 1 ranked Grove City (22-2) will face Hilliard Davidson for their second straight district championship at 5 p.m. on Wednesday at Ohio Dominican.  Worthington Kilbourne’s record fell to 13-11.