Coatesville rallies to defeat Avon Grove in nine innings

WEST GROVE>> What started out as a splendid pitching duel between Brayden Gregg of Avon Grove and Josh Howe of Coatesville turned into a nine inning thriller that saw the Red Raiders put themselves back in the Ches-Mont National Division race with a thrilling 3-2 nine inning win.

Jake Martin stroked an RBI single to right field in the top the ninth against Avon Grove (8-2 Ches-Mont, 9-2 overall) reliever Jake Holdren to plate Howe with the winning run. Howe singled to lead off the ninth inning.

“We learned something about ourselves today,” Coatesville coach Hal Ziegler said. “We took some baby steps and the kids kept fighting and fighting.

“It reminded me of the old Coatesville teams. And Josh gives you everything he has every time he pitches. Early in the season we thought he would be a  one inning guy for us and now he is the third day starter. He really did a great job for us today.”

Avon Grove had a 2-1 lead going to the bottom of the seventh as Holdren relived Gregg, who threw 99 pitches. Gregg went six innings and allowed the Red Raiders (6-3,7-3) just one first inning run and struck out seven batters.

Holdren walked Cole Sutton to start the seventh inning. Jack Francis advanced Sutton with a pretty sacrifice bunt to put a man on second base with one out. After Martin grounded out to third base, Spencer Ferguson hit a grounder to shortstop and it looked like the game was over.

But the Avon Grove shortstop’s throw to first was low and went past the first baseman, with Sutton romping across the plate and it was a 2-2 game.

“I thought Brayden struggled with his command early but he was at his best later in the game,” Avon Grove coach John Bellaver said.

“And give them credit. They executed and we did not. The winning hit was a case where their batter took a fastball to right field and we were trying to do too much offensively today.”

The teams stayed tied until he top the ninth when Martin laced a Holdren fastball to right field for the go ahead run and Coatesville was up 3-2 going to the bottom of the ninth inning. This came after Avon Grove blew a golden chance to win the game in the bottom of the eighth inning.

The Red Devils loaded the bases with none out in the bottom of the eighth inning but when Aiden Casey lofted a fly ball to left field that was caught for the first out, Magnus Kreiger nailed the Red Devils runner who had tagged up at third base, at the plate for the second out.

Avon Grove’s Paul Mills grounded out to end the inning and the Red Raiders breathed a huge sigh of relief and the teams headed to the ninth inning tied 2-2.

Avon Grove came to bat against the fourth Coatesville pitcher of the game in the bottom of the ninth inning down 3-2. Ziegler brought in Connor Monagahn to nail down the win. Monagahn struck out Owen Yoder to start the inning.

But the dangerous Trevor Dosenbach ripped a ground rule double to right field to put the tying run on second base with one out. Kenn Askin was hit by a monaghan pitch to put men on first and second with one out.

But Monagahn did his job as he retired Trent Dosenbach and Nathan Schwing to end the inning and the Red Raiders had a very important 3-2 victory.

Howe pitched brilliantly as he went seven innings and allowed just there ehits while striking out 10 Red Devils batters and did not walk a batter in his seven innings of work.

“We really needed this win because we lost a 10 inning game to West Chester East the other day,” Howe said. “I knew in the pen before the game that my breaking stuff was good. My slider and off speed was dominant and my fastball got me though in some spots. We really wanted this game and it feels good to have the win.”

Coatesville 3, Avon Grove 2, nine innings

Coatesville   100 000 101-3
Avon Grove  000 200 000-2
2B-Trevor Dosenbach. 3B-Strawhecker.
WP-C.Monagahn. LP-Holdren.