ELYRIA — The Elyria Post 12 American Legion team had what, at least when looking at the statistics, was another bad fielding game Tuesday evening.

Post 12 committed five errors. But the Elyrians mitigated that figure by pulling off a triple play. It was the most exciting moment in Elyria’s 10-6 victory over Ashland Post 88 at George Day Field.

“We still haven’t been able to put together a really solid defensive game yet,” Post 12 coach Brad Chenoweth said. “The triple play was a key. Who knows what would’ve happened if we hadn’t had that.”

The triplet came in the second inning after Ashland loaded the bases on an infield error, single and a batter hit by a pitch. Jordan Lance hit a soft line drive to shortstop Andrew Eliopoulos near second base. Eliopoulos speared Lance’s hit, ran to second base to double up Frank Brownson and threw on to Ryan Bartizal at first to catch Freeman Nixon scrambling to get back to the bag.

“It was a killer for them,” Chenoweth said. “They had a potential big inning going.”

Elyria (10-18) had a 2-0 lead at the time. The play helped Post 12 lead from start to finish.  Elyria built a 6-0 advantage before back-to-back three-run innings by Post 88 reduced the difference to 8-6 after six innings.

Andrew Pearce was the statistical star for Post 12. Pearce, from Keystone, pitched 72/3 innings, allowing three runs to pick up his second victory of the season.

“He’s been smoking the ball lately,” Chenoweth said. “He threw a very good game.”

Pearce was also smoking with the bat, collecting four hits, reaching base all five times he batted and scoring four runs. Bartizal and Eliopoulos had three hits apiece as Elyria collected 16 for the night.

Jake Loczi and Pearce got Elyria started in the first with leadoff singles off losing pitcher Mason Myers. Eliopoulos’ groundball out scored Loczi and Bartizal’s single brought Pearce home.

Pearce and his fielders were working out of troubles in the first three innings. Ashland had runners on first and second with one away in the first before Pearce induced two flyouts to left field. A double play allowed Elyria to escape undamaged in the third.

Bartizal and Mike Cordy had run-scoring singles, and Nick Simonovich socked a two-run double in a four-run third for Elyria. All the action came after two were out.

Pearce was removed after four innings and replaced by Jon Willis, who allowed three unearned runs before Pearce was brought back to get the last out of the fifth. Ashland had just one hit in the inning, but drew three walks, got one runner on via error and had a batter hit by a pitch.

A single by Eliopoulos and a fielder’s choice on a ball hit by Justin Kidd gave Elyria two more in the fifth for an 8-3 lead. Ashland came back with three more in the top of the sixth on three hits and two hit batters.

Cordy, Simonovich and Kidd walked with one out in the seventh before Willis scored Cordy on a sacrifice fly to center. Pearce singled with one out and Bartizal doubled with two gone in the eighth to make the score 10-6.

Pearce breezed through the seventh and eighth innings, but yielded hits to two of the three men he faced in the ninth. Simonovich came on to nail down the win with a strikeout on a 3-2 count and a groundball to shortstop.

Contact Steve Byrne at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

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