Meridians Baseball

 Meridians Opening Day sweep

We ride the arms of Tyler Fugate (who returns after a summer off) and Derek Reese through two close contests Sunday afternoon (Ohio War Dawgs).   And while the veterans shoulder the hill, the Meridians' newcomers make themselves known as well with their bats.

Game 1 is all 'Gater', imposing his will on a young, talented lineup through 7 innings (coming off his Senior season at Wooster where he usually never threw more than 2 innings at a time).   We start the scoring off right away in the 1st with Soto dropping one into center with 2 outs to score Couture.   D-Will adds another in the 3rd, lacing a ball into right and that's all Tyler needed to wrap it up (Final: 2-0).

Game 2 brings more scoring, but not until the 3rd when we plate 3 (2 on Merdians rookie Bowman's double to right).  The War Dawgs answer with 1 in the 5th and 2 in the 6th to knot it up until the bottom of the 9th.  Meridians newcomer Lahmers hustles a strikeout into a 3-base error leaving him at 3rd with no outs.   Cornett then adds his cheapest hit of the day with a check-swing pop into right to walk us off (Final: 4-3).

Reese guts out all 9 innings after a Spring of primarily catching with the UC club team. 

Multi-hit days for Cornett, Reese, D-Will and Soto with Couture walking all day along with Herbstreit.   Gater picks off the first baserunner he gets, Arnold with a diving catch in left, Herby handled SS all afternoon including a quick double play (Bowman) with the runner in motion.