Dressel’s blast gives Gallia 7-5 win

[jottings]

Junior pinch-hitter Ian Dressel’s two-strike, two-out 340-foot three-run homer over the centerfield fence gave host Gallipolis a wild 7-5 comeback victory over the Portsmouth Trojans Saturday morning on Memorial Field in a Southeastern Ohio Athletic League makeup contest.

The Blue Devils trained 5-4 entering the bottom half of the seventh inning. David Rumley and Kruize Wandling were on base when Dressel unloaded on Portsmouth’s third pitcher of the day, Joe Scott. Dressel was carried off the field by his teammates following the three-run blast.

Blue Devil senior Jeff Golden notched his second straight win since rejoining the team last week. Golden went the distance, giving up five runs on nine hits. He recorded five strikeouts and walked two batters. GAHS had two errors in the important SEOAL battle.

Portsmouth used three hurlers in the stinging loss. John Harsha started and went three and one-third innings. He left trailing the Gallians, 3-0. Harsha was replaced by freshman Alex Coakley in the third. Scott replaced Coakley in the seventh inning.

Gallipolis took a 1-0 lead in the second, and was up 3-0 after three. PHS scored once in the fourth, and three times in fifth to take a 4-3 lead. The Trojans added a run in the sixth to make it 5-3. GAHS cut the deficit to 5-4 in the sixth, but with the bases loaded, Coakley got Cody Nobel to pop up.

Then came the exciting finish under threatening skies, but the rain held off and the Blue Devils improved to 10-6 overall and 7-3 inside the SEOAL. Portsmouth dropped to 9-8 on the year and 5-4 in South Division play.

Prior to the game, both teams stood in a moment of silent prayer for the untimely death of PHS athlete Wesley Workman earlier in the week.

Second place GAHS trails first place Jackson by a half-game in the SEOAL South Division and lead third place Portsmouth by a full game. Jackson is 7-2 in conference action, GAHS 7-3 and Portsmouth 5-4.

Gallipolis will host Jackson on Monday, weather permitting. Portsmouth travels to Chillicothe. Wednesday, whle Jackson plays at Portsmouth. GAHS has a bye Wednesday. Friday, the Blue Devils are at Portsmouth and Ironton is at Jackson.

Saturday’s linescore:
Portsmouth…000 131 0 –5-9-3
Gallipolis…..012 001 3 –7-10-2.
Winning pitcher—Jeff Golden. Loser—Joe Scott.

[jottings]

Jottings has been offline since late Friday. Just got back on. Sorry for the delays.

[91blue14]

nice blasts