LORAIN — What started Wednesday night at The Pipe Yard as a starting pitchers’ duel turned into a game of whose bullpen could do its job.
Despite a ninth-inning hiccup, the Slippery Rock Sliders’ relievers proved better equipped for the challenge.
The NorthCoast Knights surrendered an early 3-0 lead only to send the game to extra innings with some two-out, ninth-inning magic, but the Sliders scored two in the 10th off Knights closer Brad Goldberg in a 6-4 win. The Knights, now 9-10, lost a chance at a season-high, four-game winning streak and their first peek above the .500 mark this season.
“When you’ve been winning and starting to feel good about yourselves and lose one, it teaches you how good winning is and reminds you of that feeling,” Knights coach Andy Jarvis said. “Losing stinks. But we don’t dwell on too many, and we’ll get back to it.”
Trailing 4-3 in the ninth, Sliders reliever Mike Devine hit NorthCoast’s Kirk Singer, and Robbie Monday followed with an RBI single to tie it at 4.
The Sliders quickly scored twice in the 10th as Shane Eyler walked, and pinch-hitter Nick Spisak doubled him home. Devine then singled in Spisak for a 6-4 lead.
The Knights’ Brennan Smith followed three straight superb Knights starts by allowing a run in six innings. Smith, who was the Mid-American Conference pitcher of the year this spring while at Bowling Green, threw 66 pitches in his six innings. He said he could have gone longer, but his coaches at BG have him on a limited pitch count this summer.
“I was focused on throwing more strikes,” said Smith, who entered 0-2 with a 5.40 ERA in 112/3 innings. “You try not to think about a game like this too much, and just get ready to play (today).”
After Dave Dennemann followed Smith with 11/3 scoreless — making it just three earned runs allowed by the Knights’ staff in its last 341/3 innings. — the Sliders struck. Lorain native and Clearview graduate Anthony Weber made his first appearance with the team, hitting a batter and allowing a double before being lifted for closer Brad Goldberg with one out in the eighth. Derek Diruscia greeted Goldberg with an RBI single to slice the Knights’ lead to 3-2, and Goldberg hit Jacob Petkac in the head to load the bases.
Goldberg then induced what looked like a double-play grounder, but second baseman Matt McAllester’s relay throw was in the dirt. Two runs scored on the error and the Sliders led, 4-3.
NorthCoast gained its three-run lead on a John Spatola RBI double in the first, scoring McAllester. Evan Melendez’s second-inning run scored on a Slippery Rock throwing error, and Robbie Monday’s RBI single, drove in Adam Derner.
That was all NorthCoast managed off Sliders starter Mark Wilder, who entered with a 1.54 ERA (two runs in 112/3 innings) and allowed only three more runners and struck out 10 overall.
Despite the hiccup, Wilder’s bullpen mates — Rich Raraigh and Mike Devine — struck out each batter they retired: nine in three innings
“We have to keep going at their pitchers in that instance, especially after jumping on (Wilder) early,” said Melendez, who went 3-for-5 to raise his average — fourth-best in the Prospect League entering play Wednesday — to .348. “I think we got a little comfortable with that 3-0 lead, and that came back to bite us. With a good pitcher, you have to keep scoring.”

Notable

To make up two rained-out games against the Sliders, the Knights will play doubleheaders Sunday and Aug. 2 at The Pipe Yard, each beginning at 2:05 p.m. Monday’s game against the Butler BlueSox, originally scheduled for a 7:05 p.m. first pitch, will start at noon.

TONIGHT

WHO: NorthCoast Knights at Butler BlueSox
TIME: 7:05 p.m.
WHERE: Pullman Park, Butler, Pa.
WEBCAST: Live on northcoastknights.com

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