The bats are waking up for Green baseball.

After a long offensive slump to begin their 2008 campaign, the Bulldogs relieved some stress in a 13-7 comeback win over Copley.

“It’s been a long and rough season,” commented Green Head Coach Jon Wallace. “It’s good to come out in May and get a win like this to prove we can come back. I felt like we were dragging a little bit these past couple of days, so today was big for our mentality going forward.”

Green drew first blood. With two outs, senior Zach Runion drew a walk and stole second base. Starting pitcher Kurt Gamby drove a line drive to right-center field, helping out his own cause on the mound.

For the next four innings, the Indians hit the ball just hard enough, forcing Green’s defense – which made two “Web-gem” type plays in the first inning – to come up with the ball. Unfortunately for the Bulldogs, everything seemed just out of reach and several mistakes were manufactured into runs for Copley.

Three errors led to four runs in as many innings, and the struggling Bulldogs almost lost all composure.

Like it has been all season, Dicky Coombs’ hustle led to a  double and opened the door for a Bulldog rally.

“When we got down a couple of runs late in the game, we got together as a team and realized we had to get on our toes. I think we played on our heels for most of the game and needed to get a rally going,” commented Wallace.

Coombs hit a rocket down the first base line, hustling for a sliding double. Runion followed him with a sharp groundball. His hustle down the line forced a close play turning into a bobbled throw and runners on the corners.

Coombs saw his chance, rounded third and headed for home. Coombs beat the throw and Runion advanced into scoring position, now down 4-2.

After a walk and a single by senior Brian Klinger, the bases were juiced with two outs and junior Jake Deluca batting.

Deluca slammed the first pitch he saw, missing a grand slam by mere feet. The end result was a bases clearing triple to give the Bulldogs their second lead of the game. Senior Brian Todd capped off the inning with an RBI single, driving in the fifth run of the inning to give Green a 6-4 lead.

In the top of the sixth, pinch hitter Nate Husman provided the spark Copley needed and crushed a no-doubter over the left field fence, shifting momentum again.
A single and walk opened the door for Copley first basemen Jon Hill, who ripped a double which scored two and gave the Indians the lead.

Lee Grosscup, who relieved Gamby (5 innings pitched, two strikeouts), salvaged the inning with Green down two.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Bulldog offense exploded again for seven runs on four hits.

Copley pitchers walked the first four batters to come to the plate.  Gamby then ripped another double, this one plating two Bulldogs for the fourth lead change of the game.
Brian Klinger, Brian Todd, Tyler Guyton and Grosscup all added RBI’s. Every Green hitter either hit in a run or reached base in the inning.

Earlier in the year, Green gave up 11 runs in one inning – on Monday they scored 12 runs in two innings – the Bulldogs can find some redemption there.

“It’s critical that we score runs and put the ball in play,” explained Wallace. “Earlier in the year we weren’t forcing the defense to make plays. We’re starting to get some pop on the ball and taking advantages of mistakes. We have some confidence now and we know we can put runs on the scoreboard, so if things don’t go right in the early innings we know to stick with it.”

Wallace knows momentum at the end of the season is key, and in May, every out counts. “In this month, you play all 21 outs, and you play them all at 100 percent. Sometimes big mistakes happen when you have a season like we have had, but today was a lesson as to why you always go out and play hard. We don’t care what our record is. We don’t look at it and our opponent doesn’t look at it – we just have to play our game.”

The Bulldogs are now 5-13 and preparing for postseason play.