WHITING, Ind. – The Griffith Generals found themselves in a lot of trouble tonight, but they tightroped out of danger to stun the Northwest Indiana Oilmen by a score of 5-1. The Generals have found ways to hurt the Oilmen the last two nights: a tough loss to the Corn Dogs last night that kept the Oilmen in second and a win tonight, putting the Oilmen a full game back of the top spot.
Osvaldo Ballesteros was an escape artist, as he put 11 Oilmen on base, but none of them scored in his 4.2 innings of work. Ryan Polly helped finish the job, as he got the final out in the fifth and pitched three more innings, only giving up one run. It was the best appearance of the season for both Generals arms.
Ballesteros’ mental toughness was on display his whole start while he kept Oilmen runners from scoring. He accredited his scoreless outing to “winning every pitch. The game can speed up on you, but I try and take a deep breath and slow down. Win the pitch, every time.”
The Generals originally didn’t have a game scheduled today, but they came in and won in one of the most hostile environments in the Northern League. The Generals had disciplined at-bats all night, as they drew eight walks and were plunked by three pitches. Timely hitting also worked in favor of Griffith.
“Just a gutsy win,” said an elated coach Peter Romsek after the game. “Looking at the [scoring] column, you don’t win a lot of games with five hits and three errors, but we were disciplined and drew walks.” The Generals had two of their three errors in the first inning, but the Oilmen stranded the bases loaded to start the narrative of the evening.
Tomorrow, the Generals have a long day ahead of them with a doubleheader against the Elkhart County Miracle. Romsek stressed the importance of keeping everyone fresh tomorrow by leaning on his starters: “Game one we have [Josh] Ortiz going; he’s been a horse this year. We’re gonna try and get as much as we can out of him. I’m gonna try and get as many players as possible to keep guys off their feet and get some rest. Just trying to get everybody reps tomorrow.”
The doubleheader against the fifth-place Miracle starts tomorrow at 5 p.m. CST.