Early in the season, the Dragons were 0-11 in one-run games. They are 7-5 since.
Make that 8-5 after Wednesday night’s 1-0 grind, grind and grind some more victory over Lake County. The Dragons are 33-32 with one game left in the first half.
“We got some dudes on this team,” outfielder Austin Hendrick said. “We got guys that can throw, we got guys that can swing it. We fought to the end.”
Hendrick made the final difference with the help of Ashton Creal and Jack Rogers. Creal was hit by a pitch to start the eighth inning. With one out, Rogers extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a single up the middle, sending Creal to third. With two outs, Hendrick lined a first-pitch sinker for a single to center to score Creal.
The win came the night after a 6-5 loss in 10 innings that was difficult to accept when baserunning mistakes cost them a chance to win.
“Yesterday is in the past,” Hendrick said. “We’re going to forget about that quick, and we’re going to go grind the next day. There’s a lot of fight in this team, and we’re going to keep playing pitch by pitch. And it showed tonight.”
The pitching of starter Chase Petty, Carson Rudd and Jake Gozzo made the Dragons’ single run and three hits be good enough. Petty struck out five in four innings on 44 pitches (35 for strikes), Rudd allowed only two hits in three innings and Gozzo (4-2) allowed only a walk in the final two innings.
Petty, rated as high as the No. 5 prospect in the Reds’ organization, lowered his ERA in 28 innings to 1.29. He bounced back from his worst start last week at Fort Wayne when he allowed three earned runs. Petty, 20, injured his elbow at the end of last season, started this season in early May and is being limited to four innings per start.
“I feel really good,” Petty said. “I’m really just trying to stay healthy and compete to put my team in the best place to win as I can, and just go out there and have fun.”
The fun continued for Petty after the game when he met up with Lake County center fielder Jake Fox. They were both committed to play college ball at Florida before being drafted and signing in 2021. They had another player take a picture of them near home plate.
“We texted earlier in the day and wished each other luck,” Petty said. “I joked with him, ‘Hey what do you want first pitch.’ It’s cool playing against friends like that.”
Fox didn’t know what was coming on that first pitch, but he did lead off the game with a sharp single. However, Petty came back the next time and struck out his almost-former teammate.
“We’re 1-1 right now,” Petty said. “There’s more to come.”
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