Baseball

G-MU 8, Cherry Valley-Springfield 6

COPES CORNER – If G-MU coach Jim Johnson had his pick, he would have preferred a loss in the regular season game to Cherry Valley-Springfield.

In the end, the Raiders won two of three games from the Patriots this season, and avenged a 13-4 loss to CV-S at last weekend’s Tri-Valley League championship game winning Wednesday’s Section IV, Class D playoff opener.

“It would have been nicer (to win last Friday), but we’re still playing,” Johnson said, whose club won 10-3 in the league matchup over a month ago. “It was a nice comeback after losing the last game.”

The Raiders played with much more confidence behind junior pitcher Andrew Delmar, who was unavailable for the league championship game due to a personal commitment. Delmar was nicked for 11 hits, but after giving up a lead-off triple to CV-S’s Jake Hoag in the seventh, he struck out the side to end the game.

“The whole team is more confident with Andy on the mound, and getting three runs early in the game quieted them (CV-S) down,” Johnson said.

G-MU plated three runs in the first on just one hit. Three errors allowed Alex Schmidt, DeMario Reed, and Delmar to score for the 3-1 lead. It was a sharp contrast from the previous game when the Raiders trailed 6-1 after an inning, and 12-2 after three.