Box Score FINDLAY, Ohio – Lake Erie got a lift from a sophomore third baseman and three upper-class pitchers, as Lake Erie downed Findlay, 4-3, in 10 innings on Monday afternoon.
Third baseman Zack DeCamp had three hits in the contest; none were bigger than a 10th inning round-tripper that helped Lake Erie salvage the final game in a three-game Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference series at Findlay.
DeCamp's home run – a blast to left on a 2-1 pitch with the score tied, 3-3 – was the icing on a cake. The bakers of that cake were starter Russ Hogue and relievers D.J. Stastny and Brandon Grunda. That trio of veteran hurlers gave Lake Erie 10 innings on the mound; they combined to allow three runs (two earned) on five base hits. And the end product was Lake Erie (11-10, 5-3 GLIAC) bouncing back from a disappointing pair of losses on Sunday.
The host Oilers (6-12, 3-5) struck first when a double, a hit and a Lake Erie error were culled together for a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. That gave starter Derek Draper a 2-0 lead to work with, and the senior left-hander would keep the scoreboard stuck on those digits until the fourth when Zack DeCamp singled and came around to score on a Dylan Yankle double. LEC got just the one run, with three batters in a row failing to plate Yankle.
With Draper and the Storm's Russ Hogue dealing quick innings, the score remained 2-1 until Lake Erie vaulted into the lead with a two-spot in the seventh.
In that seventh inning, each of the first two LEC batters was retired. Left fielder Lucas Raley then singled to right to start a two-out rally. Raley stole second in front of a Sean Mathews walk. DeCamp then singled to right, scoring Raley via the hit and Mathews via a fielding error on the Olier right fielder.
Hogue finished out the seventh and exited having yielded two runs (one earned) on three hits. He left with LEC leading, 3-2.
Lake Erie was kept off the board in the eighth. Senior southpaw D.J. Stastny came on to pitch the bottom of the eighth. Some Findlay little-ball (hit batter, bunt, single) tied the game at 3-3 in the eighth.
Goose eggs were traded in the ninth and the game went into extra innings. In the top of the 10th, DeCamp hit his go-ahead home run.
With Lake Erie leading 4-3, right-hander Brandon Grunda came on to pitch. Grunda was hamstrung by a Storm error, putting leadoff man Jordan Garcia on. A sacrifice bunt pushed Garcia to second, but Grunda then wriggled out of the jam by first inducing a pop up and then striking out senior second baseman (and No. 4 batter in the UF order) Joe Sickler to end the game.
The extra-innings victory marked Lake Erie's first of the season and their first since April 17 of last season.
DeCamp's 3-for-5, two-RBI performance was the centerpiece of a big day for the top of the Storm order. Lucas Raley batted leadoff; he went 2-for-5 with a double. Sean Mathews batted second and went 1-for-4; DeCamp batted third and was followed in the order by Dylan Yankle, who went 2-for-5 with a double.
The sunny afternoon in Findlay, Ohio, was one for the pitchers. The Storm and Oilers went a combined 3-for-26 with runners in scoring position.
Lake Erie's saving grace was that DeCamp was in scoring position … when he was standing in the batter's box in the 10th.
Notes:
Zack DeCamp now leads Lake Erie with eight multi-hit games on the season. DeCamp is batting .362/.410/.522 (batting/on-base/slugging) on the season. Lucas Raley and Dylan Yankle have now logged six multi-hit games each. … Russ Hogue lowered his season ERA to 3.22. He has thus far held foes to a .213 batting average. … Lake Erie outhit Findlay, 10-5. The Storm have recorded double-digit hit totals in 4-of-their-last-6 games. … DeCamp's home run marked his team-leading third of the season and the seventh of his career. LEC has homered in five games this season; the Storm are 4-1 over those five contests.
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