WAYNESBORO – It looked like extra innings loomed Thursday between Waynesboro and Shippensburg.
But the Greyhounds erupted for five runs in the top of the seventh inning and sealed a 13-8 varsity baseball victory against the host Indians. It was Waynesboro’s first Mid-Penn Colonial Division setback this season.
It wasn’t a good day for pitchers. The wind was straight to center field, and in addition to a number of passed balls, six batters were hit by pitches.
Runs have been plentiful for the Tribe so far in 2022. With the exception of a goose egg in the season opener against Cedar Cliff (a 4-0 loss), Waynesboro scored nine runs in two different games and 11 in another game.
Any other day, eight runs probably would have done the trick. But not on a chilly afternoon at Tom Robinson Field. Shippensburg posted five runs in each of the third and seventh innings. The Hounds erased a 4-1 deficit with a five-run third to take a 6-4 lead.
But the Indians, as they have done countless times through the years, put up four runs in the home third to forge an 8-6 lead.
Garrett Blount led off the third frame with a single. He was forced at second, allowing Ethan Hotchkiss to take over first base. Luke Martin drew a one-out walk. Jared Peck singled to load the bases, and Ethan Earley hit a sacrifice fly to center field to plate Hotchkiss.
With two outs in the books, Dylan Morgan walked to load the bases, setting up lead-off hitter Kellen Smith.
Smith opened the game by getting hit by a pitch and rounding the bases thanks to two errors. He reached base on a two-out error in the second and turned it into another run.
This time, Smith hit a bases-clearing double.
It was the base runners that didn’t make it to home plate that defined the rest of the game for Waynesboro. The Tribe left runners on second and third in the fourth and left the bases loaded in the fifth. It was déjà vu in the sixth with runners on second and third left stranded.
Waynesboro (4-2, 3-1 MPC) has three games scheduled for next week, starting with a non-league game against Chambersburg at Greene Township Park in Scotland on Monday at 4:30 p.m.
