Sluggers' pitchers stifle Joes for first home win

FINDLAY – Flag City's pitch-by-committee was a rousing success on Friday and Charlie Smith's two-run home run put an exclamation point on the Sluggers 7-2 win over the Hamilton Joes in a Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League game at Fifth Third Field.Findlay High grad Ben Best started and pitched three hitless innings. Sluggers' coach Tyler Smith then put a new man – including infielder Cameron Baker – on the mound every inning after that, with Jacob Brandon pitching the fourth inning, Jacob Sams the fifth, Baker the sixth, Aidan Murphy the seventh, Leo McEnulty the eighth and Cooper Ashby the ninth.Combined, that group took a no-hitter into the sixth inning. Jackson Wang broke it up with an RBI single and Brent Danby would drive home another run in the seventh. Overall, though, Flag City's well-armed staff of pitchers allowed just those two runs, gave up only three hits overall and struck out nine.With Flag City leading just 4-2, Smith's two-run blast in the bottom of the eighth inning was the clincher in the Sluggers first-ever home win, and their sixth straight win overall. Now 6-6 overall, Flag City will host Hamilton again today in a 7:05 matchup at Fifth Third Field, then travel to Hamilton, 7-6 and the first-place team in the GLSCL South Division, on Sunday for the final game of the three-game series.Flag City hitters backed the shutout pitching with some early offense.Tanner Powell, one of the league's top hitters with a .483 average, singled and scored on Trey Gardner's RBI single in the second inning, and plated his team-leading 10th RBI with a bases-loaded ground out in the third. When Ryan Mills scored on an error, the Sluggers led 3-0.Hamilton trimmed the deficit to 3-2 with single runs in the sixth and seventh inning, but Flag City responded. Matt Gardner scored on Harrison Engskov's single – his 10th RBI of the season as well – in the bottom of the seventh, and Smith's blast, the Sluggers first home run of the season, and Matt Gardner's RBI double pushed the advantage to 7-2. Hamilton 000 001 100—2 3 2Flag City 012 000 13x—7 7 2WP—Best. LP—Bilo. TOP HITTERS: (HJ) Correra 1B, RBI. (FC) Powell 2-1B; Engskov 1B, RBI; Ch. Smith HR, 2 RBI; M. Gardner 2B, RBI; T. Gardner 1B, RBI.ScheduleSATURDAY'S EVENTSGLSCL BASEBALLHamilton Joes at Flag City Sluggers, 7:05 p.m. LEGION BASEBALLFindlay at PBT Border Battle SUNDAY'S EVENTSGLSCL BASEBALLFlag City Sluggers at Hamilton Joes, 7:05 p.m. LEGION BASEBALLFindlay at PBT Border Battle