Cincinnati Steam

Red Team Make Plays at Right Time, Claim All-Star Game

The Cincinnati Steam played host to the GLSCL All-Star Game on Wednesday evening in front of a capacity crowd at Western Hills High School. The league’s best made sure that the fans were not disappointed, as the Red Team claimed the victory of the Blue Team, taking the closely contested game by a score of 4-3.

The Red Team didn’t do much throughout the majority of the game, as they only managed four hits, versus the eleven hits by the Blue Team. The Blue Team got things going early, when Stark County’s Ed Rohan got an RBI single in the bottom of the 3^rd thanks to a miscommunication in the Red Team infield, giving them the 1-0 lead.

The Blue Team added two more runs in the 4^th, as Chris Lewis scored fellow Columbus teammate Hayden Johnston on a broken-bat single and Delaware’s Logan Williams knocked in Jake Goebbert, of Southern Ohio, to give the Blue a 3-0 lead.

Tommy Nurre looked to get some momentum going for the Red Team in the bottom of the 4^th, knocking a huge solo homer to deep left field, cutting into their deficit, making it 3-1. The game stayed that way for quite a while, until the bottom of the 8^th.

Brad Gschwind, of the Cincinnati Steam, got things going with a lead-off single and Lake Erie’s Sean Hoffman proceeded to walk the bases loaded, bringing up Xenia’s Andrew Page. Page produced when he needed to, ripping a bases-clearing, two-out double to deep right field, a hit that earned him the 2008 GLSCL All-Star Game MVP honors.

After the Blue Team was blanked in the top of the 9^th, the Red Team came to the plate one more time, and continued looking good, adding three more runs. The first came on a double to right-center field by Licking County’s Jeremy Hazelbaker, scoring Cincinnati’s Brandon Besl. Xenia’s Case Rigby then came to the plate and added some late fireworks, knocking a two-run, no-doubt home run to left field, giving the Red Team two unnecessary insurance runs, making the final score 7-3.

WP – Netherton LP – Hoffman Sv – Burgoon

Blue Team 001 200 000 3 11 0

Red Team 000 100 033 7 7 0

Hitting Leaders:

Blue Team – Goebbert (2-3; 1 run), Johnston (2-3; 1 run), Williams (2-3; 1 rbi)

Red Team – Nurre (1-2; HR; 1 run, 1 rbi), Besl (1-2; 1 run), Gschwind (1-3; 1 run), Rigby (1-3; HR; 1 run, 2 rbi)