Johnstown’s rally falls short against Chillicothe
By Riley Holsinger
For The Johnstown Mill Rats
The Johnstown Mill Rats (6-18) fell out to an early 6-1 hole against the Chillicothe Paints (12-12) in tonight’s game.
Will Lozinak started on the hill for Johnstown and gave up three earned runs on three hits in four innings of work. Two of those earned runs scored by way of wild pitches.
“Things didn’t go our way early,” Mill Rats Manager Parker Lynn said. “Normally in the past we crumbled when things haven’t gone our way but to see our guys fight and claw back a little bit towards the end is something we need to walk away with as a positive.”
Chillocothe didn’t just do damage to Lozinak but also Mill Rats reliever JT Wolke. Wolke gave up a solo home run to Trey Smith, the first batter he faced. Wolke pitched five innings in relief and gave up three earned runs on four hits, one of which was another solo home run.
The only run Johnstown scored from the first inning to the sixth inning was by way of a bases loaded walk that brought home Damien Yenzi in the fourth inning. The Mill Rats rallied from the sixth inning and on, something that Lynn appreciated.
“I thought we were in the ball game the entire game but I thought we were really thought we were in there at the end,” Lynn said. “I truly believed we were going to pull it out.”
Johnstown ultimately didn’t pull it out at the end by losing 6-4, but Johnstown’s play could have had you convinced from the bottom of the sixth inning and on. Johnstown trailed 6-1 in the bottom of the sixth inning and had some work to do to rally.
Mill Rats infielder Cameron Walker sparked some offense by drilling a two RBI single into right field to trim the deficit to 6-3. Walker’s single scored DJ Alexander and Mike Whiteherse. Walker added another hit in the game.
The only other run the Mill Rats scored in the game came in the eighth inning as Owen Sabol smacked a sacrifice fly to right field to score Alexander. Johnstown’s offense was idle for the last inning of the game.
Lynn believes that the key for the team moving forward is putting a complete game together.
“I think we just need to start firing on all cylinders,” Lynn said. “Tonight, our defense was there. Our offense was there late and tonight pitching wasn’t. It’s just a combination of everything not being there at once and once everything starts clicking at once we will be firing on all cylinders.”
Johnstown looks for revenge against Chillicothe tomorrow night at 7 in Sargent’s Stadium at the Point.
Full breakdown of the stats and box score can be found here: https://pointstreak.com/baseball/boxscore.html?gameid=541024
