Kevin Rose the starting Grimsley pitcher not only slowed down Page on Saturday afternoon at NewBridge Bank Park he nearly pulled off a perfect-game. Kevin Rose, the junior right hander for the Whirlies, only allowed one base runner all afternoon in the Whirlies 10-0 victory over the Page Pirates. Senior Cole Lee, the son of the Page AD Rusty Lee, drew a walk for the Pirates with two men gone in the top of the third inning and nobody reached base the rest of the day off of Rose and the Grimsley defense that was backing him up. Lee was picked off of first base on throw down by catcher Gabe Dimock who called a great game as Rose’s battery mate behind the plate.
Grimsley tops Page 10-0 and the Whirlies are (13-5/5-2) with a key game against East Forsyth coming up this Tuesday at Grimsley. Page went with their senior starter, left hander, Zach Kornblum and he struck out six and walked two Whirlies in four and a third innings of work. Rose also struck out six and he had the one walk of Lee and again Page was only able to get one base runner on, all afternoon, and Rose was that one walk away from pitching a perfect-game.
Grimsley showed strong defense throughout the game and Andrew Faircloth at third base stands out for his fine play handling three ground balls on the left side of the infield. Andrew Justice was two-for-two at second base defensively and Cal Sutphin made two plays on ground balls at shortstop. There were two fly balls hit to Sawyer Highfill in centerfield and he handled both of those and there was a pop-up to George Carter at first base and he hauled that one in to go along with a ball hit back to the pitcher Kevin Rose. All of those plays go along with the six K’s and the one walk issued by Rose.
On offense the Whirlies got an inside-the-park home run by George Carter that got past centerfielder Nick Jones and this brought in Carter and Matt Nettesheim for the Whirlies.(2-0 Grimsley in the first) Nettesheim had two hits with a double and a triple on the day and he drove in one run and scored another. Cal Sutphin was on base twice with a walk and he reached on an error. Gabe Dimock had a single and his designated runner Kyle Henderson scored two runs. We mentioned Carter’s inside the parker and he also had a single and he scored three runs to go along with his 2RBI’s. Pat Oechsli walked twice, singled and he scored two runs. Andrew Justice had two singles, scored once and he drove in two runs. Shaq Jacobs reached once with a walk. Lucas Wren walked and scored a run. Eri Johnston walked, singled and drove in a run and that is most of the Whirlie offense.
It was great to get chance to talk to the coaches William Hardin of Page and Alan Ashkinazy of Grimsley before the game and I’m sure all of the kids that got the opportunity to play on the professional field downtown, had an experience of a lifetime.
Maybe a once in a lifetime day for the Girmsley Whirlies’ pitcher Kevin Rose and who knows he may never have a game like this ever again, but on this Saturday April 19, 2008, Kevin Rose came within one man of pitching a perfect-game and he along with the help of his Whirlie teammates delivered a Complete-game, No-hit, Shutout……….
*****In talking with Grimsley assistant AD Darren Corbett on Saturday afternoon, he said Lay Lay Brown the Whirlie CF who was injured in the NWG game, well the word on Brown is he may have to have some work done on his eye-socket. He has not been back to school since last Tuesday and they expect some surgery will be needed and Lay Lay Brown will down for a while longer and probably won’t be back with the baseball team any time soon.*****