Font ResizeAggression was a necessity for the Spring Grove baseball team on Friday.
The Rockets were facing Central York pitcher Paul Rishel, who no-hit them in a shortened 19-run victory earlier this season. It was an embarrassing loss, and they intended to take charge and do the best to prevent a similar result.
Did they ever.
Spring Grove stepped up, swung the bats, and enough good things happened to give the Rockets an 11-6 victory on the road and move them within a half-game of first place in YAIAA Division I.
The victory was Spring Grove's ninth in the past 10 games and snapped Central York's six-game winning streak. Spring Grove coach Eric Zeigler said it was "without a doubt the most critical victory we've had." Sophomore left fielder Derrick Schnetzka said the Rockets (9-6, 8-4 Division I) learned from the last game against Central (10-4, 8-3 Division I).
"Since (Rishel) faced us early in the year and shut us down, we had something to prove against him," said Schnetzka, who went 3-for-5 with a home run and two runs scored. "We knew what we had and we just sat back and waited for our pitches and put the ball in play."
Nine of the first 10 Spring Grove batters reached base in the top of the first inning, thanks in part to five Central York errors, and the Rockets took a 6-0 lead. By the end of the second inning, Spring Grove was up 9-2 and Rishel was out of the game.
Rishel gave up seven runs, but six of them were unearned. The
"There are no moral victories," Central coach Mike Valencik said. "We're passed that. You look for that stuff early on in the season. After that, you just have to win.
"When you have all of these errors, it's going to be hard to win a game," he said. "We out-hit them, but it didn't matter. It was too much of an uphill battle."
Tyler Dreisbach and Brennan Inch were both 3-for-3 from the plate for the Panthers, and Central York finished with 11 hits, but was unable to put together a big rally against sophomore pitcher Allen Rohrbaugh.
Taking the mound in a critical game with the Rockets' top two starters unavailable, Rohrbaugh allowed the leadoff batter to reach base in six of the seven innings, but he recovered well enough to earn the victory for a Spring Grove team that will play a game today for the fourth consecutive day.
"I can't be any more pleased with Allen's effort today," Zeigler said. "I needed him to eat some innings up for us against a very good hitting team. He held them at bay and did what he needed to do to get the win."
smclernon@ydr.com; 880-1501
