04 Jun Complete Win For Miners
Griffin Baker 1-Hit Shutout, 14-Run Explosion Coast Miners To Victory
June 4, Pomona, NY – After a frustrating evening on Saturday night, the Sussex County Miners bounced back in a resounding way on Sunday afternoon at Clover Stadium. Griffin Baker earned his first career shutout in a masterful one-hit performance, and the Miners plated fourteen runs on twelve hits and a record eight hit batsmen en route to the 14-0 final scoreline against the New York Boulders.
The game-long story was Baker, who was in control all afternoon long. He was matching July Sosa of the Boulders batter for batter until Sosa ran into trouble in the fourth inning. Then, once the Miners offense started pushing runs across, Baker just kept motoring along on a NASCAR-related theme in Pomona, only getting in a bit of trouble with a pair of walks in the fourth inning as the Miners built their lead around six innings of hitless ball. Even the large gaps in time between trips to the mound didn’t affect Baker, as he has struck out seven batters through the first six innings.
Baker’s bid for history ended in the seventh, when Jimmy Costin led the inning off with a single to right field. But that did little to deter Baker, as he set the next three batters down in the seventh, then induced a double play after a walk to cruise through the eighth, and set the Boulders down in order in the ninth, with a strikeout to punctuate a career day. The final stat line for Griffin was no runs, one hit, three walks, and nine strikeouts.
As for the offense, they got multiple hit performances from Gavin Stupienski, whose three hits and three runs scored led Sussex County. He was one of seven Miners who were hit by pitches a total of eight times in the game, setting a Miners record – and possibly a Frontier League record in the process. Jason Agresti also scored three times, and was hit by pitches twice in a one-for-four afternoon. Juan Santana and Willie Escala also had two hits and two runs batted in each. Edwin Mateo and Will Zimmerman scored two runs each, and Jawuan Harris and Abraham Mow had three runs batted in each. As for the hit by pitches, Agresti (twice), Mateo, Zimmerman, Stupienski, Harris, Mow, and Escala were the Miners that were hit by Boulders pitches on the afternoon.
The Miners will now head to Avon, OH to start a three-game series against the Lake Erie Crushers, with all three games scheduled for 7:05 first pitches.
Photo Credit: Phil Hoops (@HoopsApproved)