Amherst wins pitching duel over Midview in Summer Classic

AMHERST — It was a pitching duel Tuesday in the Amherst Summer Classic. Amherst Green's Cam Gendics and Midview's Spencer Mueller put on a breaking ball clinic, as each only allowed one unearned run, but the Comets pieced together a second unearned run off the Middies' bullpen with two outs in seventh inning to get a 2-1 victory over its Southwestern Conference rival. Amherst Green improved to 2-0 and will be back in action at home again tonight at 5:30 against Keystone, while Midview dropped its first game and will play at Elyria at the same time. "They were dealing, Gendics was on from the jump and Mueller threw a gem as well," Middies coach Ryan Morgan said. "We had a couple errors here and there and that's what led to our demise." The Middies put the first run of the game on the board in the third inning when Zak Jockel made his way to second on a throwing error with two down and Mason Tackett brought him home with a sharp single through the right side. From that point, Gendics only allowed two hits, giving up a triple to Jayden Stout in the fifth and an infield single to Jordan Smith in the sixth. He had eight of his 13 strikeouts over his final four innings on the mound. "I tried working the curveball a lot and I was able to get the fastball past them, too, and work on the slider, too," said Gendics, who threw for the T3 Warhawks this summer. "Everything was working and I was hitting all my spots." Mueller scattered three hits over the first three innings as Gendics accounted for a pair of singles and Martin Polonkay had an infield single. He finished six innings with seven strikeouts and three walks. Senior Chase Mayer opened the fifth, reaching on an error, stealing second and moving to third when Logan Dull reached on the second error of the inning. With the infield drawn in, Gendics hit a ball right at the bag at first, where the first baseman stepped on the bag and fired home, but Mayer beat the throw to tie the score. The score stayed that way until the seventh when Amherst Green scratched out the winning run without a hit. Jacob Schliesser drew a walk off reliever Joey Melendez and freshman Tyler Denn came in to run after a sacrifice bunt from Henry Isaacs moved him to second. Denn went to third when Seth Lopez reached on an error and the winning run came home with Logan McCrone at the plate on a wild pitch. "We had the reputation last year of pitching really well and struggling to get some runs. We were able to get the two across to win the game today," Amherst coach Matt Rositano said. "That was a well-pitched game by two really good pitchers. That's the epitome of a pitcher's duel right there." Contact James Brady at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.