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Greencastle holds off Waynesboro rally


Despite miscues in the first inning, the Waynesboro baseball team walked onto the diamond in Greencastle on Tuesday and kept pace with its rival.

Left, right. Left, right. Making strides to respond to each move the Blue Devils made. But Greencastle's steps we're just slightly bigger, and kept the Indians at bay to lock in a 7-5 Mid Penn Colonial Division win on its home field.

The Indians (4-2, 0-1 MPC) cut a six-run deficit to two thanks to a productive third inning, and kept pace defensively throughout the rest of the game. But with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the seventh, Waynesboro couldn't capitalize to complete the rally.

"We waited too long to play; you can't wait until you're down and decide you're going to come back, you just run out of innings," Waynesboro coach Greg Chandler said. "We had the winning runs and the tying runs. I think they'd like to have a couple at-bats back."

Matt Kline, who came in for relief in the sixth inning, completed a save by striking out two in the final inning.

"I knew it was going to be a dog fight - they are a great team and they always play us hard," Kline said. "I trust my defense no matter what, I know they will make plays for me."

"It looked like it had the makings of being a barn-burner, but it settled down a little bit," Greencastle coach Eric Shaner said.

With Waynesboro pitcher Clay Wolfe on the mound to start the game, the Blue Devils (3-0, 1-0 MPC) knew what would be thrown at them, and used it to their advantage early.

"He set kind of a tone that he was going to pitch low and away," Shaner said. "He did that to us last year, and we talked about this before the game: Let's settle and make them beat us inside."

Bailey Parker was walked to lead off the second inning, and scored off an error. Twenty minutes later, Parker returned to the plate to bat for the second time that inning after the team brought in five more runs. Spencer Meyers hit a two-RBI single and Myles Gayman had a textbook hit down the first-base line to add cushion to Greencastle's growing lead.

When it was finally Waynesboro's turn to bat, the Indians were facing a 7-1 deficit.

Back-to-back walks thrown by Derek Measell, and a single by Francisco Maya loaded the bases for Brady Riddell. He worked his way to a full count before blasting a double to right-center field, that might have made it over the fence had the wind not been blowing in. The hit cleared the bases and Riddell was brought home on a single by Jarrett Biesecker to cut the deficit to two.