El Cajon — Close but not quite there. That would be one way of summing up the Grossmont College baseball game against San Diego City College on Friday, April 15th at Noel Michelson Field.
The Griffins (21-11, 14-5 PCAC) lost the game 8-7 in ten innings to the Knights (13-17, 8-11 PCAC). By taking the win, the Knights avoided being swept in the season series.
Kaleb Tedokon, Luke Denos, Skyler Agnew and Jared Pratt all registered two hits against Knights pitching.
Andrew Shirvanian (2-3) was the hard luck losing pitcher for Grossmont.
The game was scoreless thru two innings.
City broke through in the top of the third with five runs.
The comeback began in the bottom of the fourth inning for the Griffins. Tedokon led the inning off with a single through the left side. After a flyout, Luke Denos launched his second home run of the season to get the shutout over with. Sean McGrew had an infield single as did Agnew to put runners on first and second with only one out. A fielder's choice allowed Jake Allen to get on, but Agnew was forced out at second base. That is how the first third of the game would end, 5-2 City.
Both the fifth and sixth innings were filled with zeros on the scoreboard.
City and Grossmont each put a run up on the board in the seventh. The Green and Gold saw Dante Juliano triple to right center to lead the bottom of the seventh. Pratt would get his lone RBI on the day when he singled to center brining home Juliano. The Griffins would go strikeout, fly out, fly out to bring what looked like a promising inning to an abrupt close.
The bottom of the eighth inning got underway with a City error allowing Denos to get all the way to third base. McGrew walked to put runners on the corners. That was enough for the City brain trust as they brought in another reliever. Agnew was a rude host as he welcomed the new pitcher with an RBI single to right field pushing McGrew to second and scoring Denos to make it 7-4 City. McGrew stole third to make it runners on first and third with one out. Juliano reached on another fielder's choice forcing Agnew out at second, but scoring McGrew to close the Griffins within two. The Griffins were caught being greedy as Juliano was caught stealing.
Shirvanian, who came in the eighth inning, struck out the side in the top of the ninth to setup the drama of the bottom of the ninth.
Pratt singled to center to start the final frame. Nick Seabrook would run for Pratt. Ethan Caschetta would get hit by a pitch to put the tying run on base. A double play would put a damper on the Griffin faithful. Zavien Watson would bring those faithful back into full throat as he left the field to left center field for his eighth homer of the season to level things at seven.
City would play small ball as only one (out of six batters) ball got to the outfield, but they pushed a run across the plate.
The bottom of the inning wasn't as happy as the ninth. GC went three up, three down.
Next week, the Griffins will faceoff against Palomar College. Entering Friday, the Griffins and Comets were tied for first place in the Pacific Coast Athletic Conference. Tuesday and Saturday games will be in San Marcos at 2:00 p.m. and 1:00 p.m. respectfully. Thursday, the scene will shift to Noel Michelson Field for a 2:00 p.m. contest.
Following the week with Palomar, the Griffins will close the regular season with a three-game set against the Southwestern College Jaguars. Grossmont will host two of the three games.