Grife stifles Blowfish as RedWolves win opener

Jamie Walczak, right, slides easily into second base against Columbia on Thursday at American Legion Field.

By: By Shawn Singleton | SCNOW
Published: May 30, 2008

FLORENCE — Thunderstorms and heavy rain Wednesday night forced the Florence RedWolves to wait an extra day to start their season.
The wait was well worth it.
Florence got solid pitching from Steve Grife and two RBI from Myckie Lugbauer as the RedWolves rolled to a 6-1 win over the Blowfish on Thursday at Legion Field.
Grife (1-0) kept the Columbia hitters off balance all night with a fastball that ran in the mid-90s at times. The Mercyhurst standout allowed no earned runs on two hits in six innings pitched with six strikeouts, one walk and one hit batter.
Jeremy Berg and Justin Beal shut down Columbia during the final three innings to seal the win.
“Steve’s a competitor. He’s got a God-given talent with a strong arm and he throws strikes,” first-year RedWolves coach Wes Davis said. “Even though he didn’t have his best stuff at times, he was on tonight.”
“He got ahead of us. He had the good fastball going tonight and he threw it with control,” Blowfish coach Tim Medlin said of Grife. “College players love swinging at high fastballs, and he threw it above their hands. We never adjusted to it.”
The RedWolves (1-0) opened the scoring off Francis Marion’s Erik Sommerville in the bottom of the first inning. Myckie Lugbauer lined a two-out single to left that scored Barrett Kleinknecht, giving Florence a 1-0 lead.
Florence added another run off Sommerville in the second inning. After Sommerville’s FMU teammate Keon Graves doubled, Keegan Morrow followed with a double to bring the Dillon native home for a 2-0 advantage.
Columbia (0-2) made it 2-1 in the sixth inning on former former RedWolf Jesse Barboro’s groundout.
Florence got the run back with consecutive doubles from Jared Barkdoll and Lugbauer that increased the lead to 3-1 and chased Sommerville from the contest.
Medlin inserted Rob Wilcox, who native uncorked a wild pitch that allowed Lugbauer to score to close the book on Sommerville and give the RedWolves a 4-1 lead.
Graves finished with an RBI and a run scored for Florence. Morrow had two hits and an RBI, and Herman Petzold followed with an eighth-inning RBI single.
“After the first inning, we did a good job with our situational hitting,” Davis said. “As a coach, that’s what you ask for and we got the job done tonight.”
Sommerville (0-1) gave up four runs for Columbia, all earned, on six hits in five-plus innings pitched, striking out one hitter and walking one.
“Sommerville didn’t pitch badly tonight,” Medlin said. “We weren’t able to get him any runs for him tonight.”

Grife stifles Blowfish as RedWolves win opener

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