JM edges Big Red in back-and-forth game

GLEN DALE -- A Rembrandt? No.

A Picasso? No.

An ugly, much-needed, high school baseball win on a cold late March afternoon, yes.

That is what John Marshall achieved Tuesday with a come-from-behind, 10-9, nod over visiting Steubenville in 8 innings on Monarch Field.

"A win is a win. We really needed this one," John Marshall (2-4) head coach Mark Cisar allowed. "After the football score we gave up yesterday (Monday) at University (a 20-0 loss), we really needed a victory today.

"The kids battled and battled," he continued. "The big thing was we finally hit the ball today, and we hit it hard at times."

One of those authority hits came in the form of a triple by Aaron Hicks leading off the home half of the eighth. He drilled an 0-1 pitch to the gap in right-center and hustled into third. With one out, Chase Armstrong, the No. 9 hitter in the JM lineup, lifted a shallow pop up to center that caromed off a diving Hakim Edwards' glove as Hicks, who waited to see if the ball would be caught, sprinted home.

"You're going to make errors in high school ... maybe not eight ... and win games. That's baseball," Cisar noted. "We need to start making the routine plays, which we are not doing and that is putting more pressure on our pitchers.

"The game is so mental and you can't let it get to you," Cisar stressed. "If you make an error, you've got to want the next ball hit to you to so you can make a play

Veteran Steubenville (1-2) head coach Fred Heatherington, although not pleased with the end result, was proud of the way his team responded after giving up leads of 4-0 and 6-3.

"Our bats kind of died after the first inning, but we came back in the seventh. Our kids stayed in the game and that's all we can ask," he said. "We played the full game. That's all we can ask."

Big Red scored twice in the first and two more times in the second for a 4-0 advantage. Lee Sewell and Bubby Reese had RBIs in the first while a pair of errors led to a pair of unearned tallies in the second.

The Monarchs got those two back in the bottom of the second on an RBI triple off the bat of Alex Wilhelm. Wilhelm would then race home after a popup to right. He was caught in a rundown between third and home when he strayed too far from the third-base bag after tagging up, but Steubenville botched the rundown as Wilhelm safely slid head-first into home, making it 4-2.

Brennan Sobutka, who started on the hill for John Marshall and survived a rocky outing, drove in Tyler Stauffer with a sacrifice fly in the third as the deficit was cut to 4-3.

Some more shoddy defense by the Monarchs - they committed eight errors - allowed Big Red to plate two runs in the fourth for a 6-3 reading. A grounder to Coffield at short resulted in an inning-ending double play as he flipped the second baseman Ethan Cook, who in turn relayed to Armstrong at first.

With the switch in momentum, John Marshall sent 10 batters to the plate in the bottom of the fourth, with six of them touching home plate as the hosts went ahead, 9-6.

Hicks had a run-producing infield single and Coffield singled to left to make it 6-5 with two outs and end Sewell's day on the mound. Reliever Nolan Blackburn served up a two-run, opposite-field double to left-handed-hitting Brennan Sobutka that put the Monarchs on top, 7-6. An error allowed another run to cross and Braden Sobutka capped the outburst with a run-scoring double to left-center.

John Marshall reliever Isaac Koontz held Steubenville retired the first six Big Red batters he faced in the fifth and sixth innings. But, he served up a leadoff single to start the seventh before plunking the next batter. An error allowed one run to score and a fielder's choice sent another across the plate. Reese's single to center scored Sewell with the tying run.

Stauffer, Braden Sobutka, Wilhelm, Hicks and Armstrong all enjoyed multi-hit games, with Brennan Sobutka driving in three runs and Hicks a pair. Four other players had an RBI each.

John Marshall welcomes Parkersburg to Monarch Field today at 5.