BOX SCORE   EY vs.York Tech 4/24

Last night the Spartans traveled to Eastern to take on the Golden Knights. Headed into the game York Tech had lost 3 of its last 5 games in the opposing teams’ last at-bat:

-Fairfield overcame the Spartans 8-7 in 8 innings.

-Hanover defeated Tech 3-2 in 10 innings.

-And Harrisburg ended the game with a 7^th inning walk-off base hit - winning 4-3.

The Spartans easily won the other 2 of those 5 games by scores of 16-2 over Columbia and 8-2 over Steelton-Highspire. It’s clear that the team has been competing and playing well and it is a real credit to the players’ perseverance that they continue to come out and play quality baseball amidst some heart-breaking losses.

Tech took an early 1-0 lead at Eastern as Nathan Chronister (Jr.) singled, stole second, was sacrificed to 3^rd by Joey VonRohr (Fr.) and scored on a Luke Greisler (Jr.) Sac-Fly. Part of the recent success for the Spartans has been their ability to take early leads. In the bottom of the first, Eastern answered quickly with a leadoff HR and added another run to lead 2-1.

Team captain Luke Greisler (Jr.) made a point to the team in a postgame huddle last week that we play with more confidence and aggression when we are winning. He challenged the team to maintain that confidence and calculated aggression no matter what the score is. He mentioned our mantra “Play Hard. Get Better. Have Fun.” And said that as a team we believe in those things no matter what the score is. This challenge went a long way for a number of players and as a whole we have played very steady baseball, which is a direct tribute to our mindset and focus… and to the leadership of our captains and upper classmen.

Trailing 2-1 in the 3^rd inning the Spartans put together their best offensive inning of the year. Hits by Chronister (Jr.), Greisler (Jr.), VonRohr (Fr.), Tyler Smith (Sr.), Jake Perry (So.), Camden Schanberger (So.) and Zadin Zorbaugh (Fr.), resulted in a 7 run barrage. Tech sent 10 batters to the plate in the inning. The game settled down and Eastern fought back to score 3 runs over the final 4 innings but the Spartans held on to win 8-5. After those very difficult losses, Coach Brown and I are very proud of the continued level of hustle, focus and competitiveness the team has displayed. They deserved this victory and it’s been exciting and gratifying to see them grow and continue to fight.

This is our 4^th win of the season, 1 short of last year’s total with 7 games remaining. Our goal is to continue to improve every day and each year by working hard, finding ways to grow and enjoying every second of it and 2 more wins would go a long way to showing our players that hard work really does pay off. Thank you to so many of you who continue to support the team and please encourage them to finish the season strong.