Calef-Boring leads B-U baseball past Grafton, 6-3

“Zach got better as the game wore on. He is a gamer. He is always going to go out and compete on the mound,” Squires said.

Both Ian Donnen and Clint Crites finished 2-for-3 at the plate to help Calef-Boring lead the Buccaneers lineup to the win.

“We had a lot of guys that hadn’t really hit much this year turn in solid games. Clint Crites had a solid game at the plate while both Payton (Bennett) and Ryan (Snyder) came up with timely hits today,” Squires said.

Grafton’s Issac Lough posted a 1-for-4 mark at the plate, hitting an early home run before driving in an RBI, Austin Mayle went 1-for-3 and drove in a RBI while Ben Louzy finished 1-for-3 and scored a run to lead the Bearcats’ offense in a losing effort.

The Bearcats offense couldn’t have dreamt up a better start as Lough smashed his homer on the game’s very first at-bat before Mayle singled on a line drive to left field, driving in Louzy for another score to give the Bearcats a 2-0 lead.

Calef-Boring scored on a Grafton error to cut the Bearcats’ lead to 2-1 at the end of the bottom of the first.

Grafton answered with a run of their own in the top of the second as Michael Niggemyer took advantage of a Buccaneer fielding error and scored.

The Buccaneers tied the game up at 3 in the bottom of the second after Ryan Snyder scored on a Grafton fielding error and Calef-Boring belted a line drive single to the center field gap, driving in Clint Crites for the equalizing score.

After holding Grafton scoreless in the top of the third, B-U seized control of the lead in the bottom of the inning as Snyder sent a hard ground ball to right field to score a run to break the tie and give the Buccaneers their first lead of the game.

The Buccaneers wouldn’t look back, adding pair of scores in the bottom of the fourth as Calef-Boring scored on an error and Lando Marple hit a sacrifice fly to drive in Bryant before Calef-Boring closed out the win with his arm.

“I thought lot of our younger guys stepped up in a big way and that was a major difference in the game. Drahden (Rice) played well in left field, Wyatt Mason had a few great plays at second base and Eli (Bryant) made the play of the game, covering ground on a fly ball to the outfield and coming up with a highlight catch,” Squires said.

“Before the game I asked our team to play clean baseball because I knew we were squaring off against a really talented team. I expected a dog fight for seven innings and that is exactly what it was, we just fell a bit short,” Grafton coach Bartsel Keener said.

“We allowed them to score off a throwing error in the bottom of the second which led to them eventually tying the game. I thought that was a major tipping point in the momentum of the game,” coach Keener said.

“The beautiful thing about baseball season is that it doesn’t matter where you start at the beginning of the year, it’s how you finish the year out. It is a grind. The Big 10 looks to very competitive this year and I look forward to us playing in many more close games this season,” coach Keener said.