GRIFFITH, Ind. – The Southland Vikings dominated on both sides of the ball against the Griffith Generals tonight, as they prevailed 10-1 on 16 hits and seven stolen bases. Southland was perfect on stolen base attempts against the Generals backstop Jesse Rhoda.
The Generals didn’t play poorly by any stretch; they just hit into tough outs all night. They also played a clean game defensively, just their third of the year. Sava Dupor was tagged for the loss in his second start of the year, as he gave up nine hits, two walks, and five runs in four innings pitched. The bullpen also got hit around, as Jimmy Fairley and Caleb Deel gave up a combined five runs in four innings.
Pitching coach Ryan Jemar was straight to the point when he gave his thoughts about Griffith’s pitching: “I’m fine with getting hit around. I’d rather just not walk people.” The Generals gave up only four walks compared to their 16 surrendered hits.
The offense had its bright spots, as Joey Carra had his third multi-hit game in the last week. Despite his hard night behind the plate, Jesse Rhoda had two hits of his own and nearly had a third on a lineout to left field.
“I don’t think we got out of the gate today,” remarked coach Peter Romsek on the loss. “We’ve gotta find a better way to flip the script, be more competitive. We hit the ball hard, but they had guys standing there.”
The Generals will host these same Vikings tomorrow at Brian Jennings Field. Regarding keys to tomorrow’s matchup, Romsek was adamant about limiting base stealing: “We need to do a better job of holding runners. They were running on us all day. We have to make it more competitive on stolen base attempts.”
First pitch in Griffith tomorrow will be at 7:10 p.m. The matchup winner will take a 4-3 advantage in the season series.