Rising Sun baseball coach Clyde Van Dyke says his team's difficulty closing out games will come back to haunt the Tigers one day. That day was not Saturday. Elkton rallied for five runs in the top of the seventh before Rising Sun held on for a 7-6 triumph. The game was eerily similar to the victory over Bohemia Manor eight days earlier. The Eagles tied the game with five runs in the seventh before Rising Sun scored a run in the home half to prevail 7-6. "It's too repetitive," Van Dyke said. "We've had three games now that we've go [into the seventh inning] four, five, six runs up and end up winning by one or two runs. It's going to come back to bite us in the butt, probably at the wrong time. Playoffs, you're one [loss] and done. We can't afford to do this. We've got to learn to come in and shut the door. I just don't know if it's maturity or what it is. I hope we don't learn the hard way." Just like in the Bohemia Manor game, Tigers' starter Noah Juergens tossed six strong innings and carried a sizable lead into the seventh against the Elks. Christian Pauley came on in relief with runners on runners on first and second Rising Sun leading 7-3 with one out. After right fielder Alex Billings made a nice grab for the second out, the Elks used an RBI single, HBP, and balk to get within a run. But Pauley got the final out on a grounder to second to seal the victory. The Tigers (6-1) played mostly solid ball for the first six innings. "Noah threw a decent game and we played good enough 'd' and we hit the ball at the right time," said Van Dyke. Jake Bower drove in three runs to lead Rising Sun's offense. He and Cole Benjamin both had an RBI single in the first to give the Tigers a 2-0 edge. Elkton answered with a run in the top of the second, aided by a pop fly that should have been caught but instead fell in between two Tiger fielders. "We played solid defense but we need to tighten that up, too," said Van Dyke. "The infielders and outfielders are not communicating. That ball needs to be caught. That adds pressure. (Assistant coach) Rick (Marcus) and I tell them over and over and over. Maybe we need to stop talking." The Tigers tacked on three runs in the bottom of the fifth. Frankie Pyle walked, moved up to second on a Benjamin single, and scored on an RBI single by Brennan Martz. Bower followed with a two-run triple over the head of the right fielder. Rising Sun added two more in the sixth. Derek Schoff singled to start it off. Billings, was running for Schoff, advanced to second on an Aaron Richardson sac bunt and scored on a two-out double in the left-center gap by Zach Van Dyke. Van Dyke wound up scoring on a bloop RBI hit by Martz. That made it 7-1 entering the seventh but as Van Dyke has found out, no lead is safe. Rising Sun 6, North East 2 Christian Pauley allowed one run in six innings of work to earn the win. Brennan Martz had two hits and an RBI and scored twice. Jack Stewart collected a pair of hits and scored a run. Comments are closed.
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