GRIFFITH, Ind. – The Griffith Generals had their best game of the season on Tuesday against the Elkhart County Miracle but were outpitched 2-1. Conor Gausselin dealt eight innings of one-run ball and struck out twelve for Elkhart.
Despite the Generals loss, it was a valiant tag-team effort by Josh Bennema and Haron Abuelhija. Bennema gave up an unearned run and struck out four in three innings, while Abuelhija was rock solid with six innings of one-run ball, striking out four batters of his own.
“It felt great,” said Abuelhija after his Griffith debut. “As soon as I threw the first inning, I felt very controlled.” He only needed 80 pitches to get through six innings of relief.
The runs for Elkhart came on unfortunate Generals miscues. On a Ricky Nye single in the fourth inning, Billy Jones overran the ball in center field and allowed runners to advance, including one that scored. The unearned run put Josh Bennema on the hook for the loss. The second run scored on a Haron Abuelhija balk in the eighth inning.
Despite the fifth straight loss to start the year, coach Romsek was pleased with the effort from his team and tipped his cap to Conor Gausselin and the Miracle for a good performance. “Those are the baseball games you want to be a part of. Their starting pitching was really good tonight. We had a couple of opportunities but weren’t quite able to capitalize. The only two runs tonight came off of free passes. We gotta limit the free stuff.”
When asked about pursuing an elusive first Generals win, Romsek emphasized rattling the opposition early. “ You like to score early and take that pressure off. We had a chance to scratch one across early, but he [Gausselin] settled in. When we do see better opposing pitching, we have to make better adjustments. Less strikeouts, more aggressive early in the count. Gotta find a way to punch early and make adjustments.”
The Generals will remain at home for one more game before their first road contest of the season on Thursday. They face the Indiana Panthers tomorrow at 7:10 p.m.