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Griffons help South All-Stars early, but North prevails
With nine selections to the MINK League All-Star Game Thursday night at Vivion Field in Jefferson City, the Nevada Griffons were bound to have a say on the outcome.
They certainly made a statement in how the action would get started, as well.
Nevada representatives Jack Swisher, Nick Chavez, and Cameron Saso did their part to give the South Division a 2-0 lead after the second frame, but the North All-Stars responded with a pair of timely home runs in the middle innings to come back and win the game, 5-3.
The North team — coached by Johnny Coy of the St. Joseph Mustangs and composed of players from his squad, the Clarinda A’s, the Chillicothe Mudcats, and the Des Moines Peak Prospects — were the visiting team in the exhibition contest, while the South — managed by the Joplin Outlaws’ Chris Dawson (with Nevada’s Jason Jacome coaching third base) and featuring top players from the Griffons, Outlaws, Sedalia Bombers, and Jefferson City Renegades — represented the home team.
After Jesse Fonteboa, who earlier that evening participated in the MINK League Home Run Derby, was the first player from Nevada to get an at-bat in the All-Star Game (he struck out swinging against starting pitcher Reid Fagerstrom from Clarinda), Swisher stepped up to the plate with one out and nobody on in the bottom of the second inning against another A’s pitcher, Chris Paruleski.
Swisher drew a walk and advanced to second on a failed fielder’s choice, before scoring the game’s first run on an RBI single to center field by the switch-hitting Chavez. Saso then extended the South’s lead with a base hit to left that drove in one.
Jeff City’s Carter Mize blasted a leadoff solo home run in the bottom of the third to put the South up 3-0.
Chase Beiter was Nevada’s first All-Star pitcher to get an opportunity on the bump when he started the top of the fourth inning. He got the first batter to pop out to Saso at third base, but walked the next one before surrendering a two-run dinger off the bat of Peak Prospects slugger Patrick Norton. Beiter was able to escape the inning without allowing another run.
Chillicothe pitcher Scott Duensing plunked Saso with two outs in the next frame, and Saso was able to advance all the way to third on a single and passed ball — but the South left the bases loaded with an inning-ending ground-out to Duensing.
In the bottom of the fifth, Nevada All-Star Tyler Davis came in to pinch-hit with runners on the corners and one out. The South squandered another opportunity to score, though, when the runner at third failed to score on a passed ball and Davis struck out swinging.
Mudcats masher Josh Swinehart made them pay with a go-ahead three-run bomb in the top of the sixth — a play that would end up deciding this one and eventually earn Swinehart the MINK League All-Star Game Most Valuable Player award.
The remaining Griffons on the South’s All-Star roster — including infielder Braeden Hinton and pitchers Richard Kiel and Sebastian Kirchner (as well as Saso, who got the only batter he faced to ground out to Davis) — each made an appearance over the final three innings. Kirchner struck out the first batter he faced, while Kiel induced a run-saving fielder’s choice in which he scooped up a grounder and flipped it to his catcher to record the out.