Trailing early, Renegades can’t come back against Griffons

Ty Wilmsmeyer connects on a pitch for a single during Thursday night's MINK League game against Nevada at Vivion Field. (Kate Cassady/News Tribune)
Ty Wilmsmeyer connects on a pitch for a single during Thursday night's MINK League game against Nevada at Vivion Field. (Kate Cassady/News Tribune)

The Jefferson City Renegades started out slow and were unable to come all the way back Thursday night in their 7-5 loss to the Nevada Griffons in MINK League play at Vivion Field.

It was tied at one after the first inning before the Griffons batted around in the second, scoring four runs to take a commanding 5-1 lead off Renegades starting pitcher Kolin Demel.

"He was a position player his freshman year, so he is still trying to learn the ropes of everything (on the mound)," Renegades coach Mike DeMilia said. "I'll give them a lot of credit, they did a good job with two strikes. He's punched a lot of guys this year, but tonight they did a nice job with two strikes. They really didn't hit a lot of balls hard, but they were finding holes and that is baseball."

Nevada threatened to blow the game wide open in the top of the fourth inning after loading the bases with one out.

Demel let a breaking ball get away on the first pitch to the next batter, clipping the foot of Andrew Pickering to bring in a run and make it 6-1.

Demel responded well and limited the damage by inducing a short fly ball to center field before picking up a called third strike for his fourth strikeout, ending the inning and his night on the mound. He allowed five runs (three earned) on seven hits and two walks in his four innings.

"I think Kolin's line score is going to look a lot worse than he actually pitched," DeMilia said. "I think he actually did a pretty decent job. He just gave up some soft contact here and there and it found some holes. That's the way baseball is."

Jefferson City started its comeback attempt when Nevada went to its bullpen in the sixth.

Relief pitcher Richard Tomlinson retired the first two batters of the frame before Cole Wagner and Colby Ott drew back-to-back walks. Brennan Perkins, making his second start of the season in the field after being used mostly as a relief pitcher, drove a 1-2 pitch into left field to drive in both runners who moved into scoring position on a wild pitch, cutting the Renegades deficit down to 6-3.

Nevada responded by getting a run back in the top of the seventh.

A leadoff single moved up to second on a wild pitch before a one-out single by Grant Nokes found a hole on the left side of the infield to drive home the run.

The Renegades were in business in the bottom half before a double play limited their threat.

Adonis Forte was hit by a pitch to lead off and Ty Wilmsmeyer drew a walk right after to put two on with no outs. TJ Racherbaumer drove a fly ball into center field that was caught by Moe De Leon, who fired the ball to third base to nab the tagging Forte for the second out.

Luc Fuller made sure the good start to the inning was not wasted, though, as he picked up an RBI single to cut the deficit back down to 7-4.

"Our at-bats were hot and cold," DeMilia said. "We had some good ones, but we are having trouble stringing a bunch of them together. I saw some good things out of some guys, some guys had better swings as the game went on, but I'd like to see us have a good offense for nine innings. That'd be really good to see and we haven't quite done that yet."

Jefferson City saw its first two batters reach base again in the bottom of the eighth.

Wagner drew a walk before Colby Ott collected a base hit, but they were stranded there after two fly outs and a strikeout ended the threat as Griffons relief pitcher Justin Agnor yelled towards the plate in celebration, inciting a little back-and-forth between the two dugouts.

"It's the game within the game," DeMilia said. "I hope our guys use it as a little bit of motivation to be honest. At the end of the day, the kid made a big pitch and got out of there. We were one swing away from tying the game up, so there is some natural emotion in the game. I'm not a huge fan of it, but it is what it is. They beat us, I guess you should be excited."

Wagner was able to collect a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to make it a two-run game, but Ott grounded out to the mound to end the game.

Wilmsmeyer led the way for Jefferson City (6-9) at the plate by going 2-for-4 with a walk and a run scored.

The Renegades will look to get revenge tonight when they travel to Nevada for another matchup with the Griffons at 7 p.m.