Zeniths have four-game weekend on the diamond in Medicine Hat

Garrett Simmons
Westwind Weekly News

It was a busy weekend for the Magrath Zeniths on the baseball diamond.
Everything kicked off with a pair of games Friday in Medicine Hat, which included an 8-3 loss to the Medicine Hat Mohawks and an 11-9 win over the Crescent Heights Vikings.
The Mohawks used a 13-hit attack and a three-run first inning to take the first Friday game over Magrath. The Zeniths could only muster six hits in the contest, as Paycen Blackmore was the only Magrath player to record a multi-hit game. He ended his day with a 2-3 performance. Taylor Cook was credited with Magrath’s only RBI, as the Mohawks made two errors in the field.
Levi Gruninger threw four innings, gave up five hits and four earned runs, as he struck out three and walked four. Sam Noad tossed two innings, and gave up eight hits and three earned runs.
Magrath bounced back later in the day against the Vikings, as the Zeniths put the game away with a six-run inning in the top of the sixth.
The back-and-forth affair had the Vikings out in front 8-5 after four complete, before Magrath’s offence jumped to life, as the Zeniths ended the game with 18 hits.
Blackmore was 5-5 to led the way for Magrath, while John Jones was 3-4 at the plate. Levi Gruninger, Sam Noad, Dustin Roe and Taylor Cook all had two hits each. Roe added two RBI in the contest.
Zeniths pitchers were also tagged for 18 hits, as Jones gave up 16 Vikings hits in five-and-one-third innings of work. He gave up nine earned runs as he struck out three and walked six. Noad three two-thirds of an inning, and gave up two hits and struck out one.
Saturday began with a 9-3 loss to Saskatchewan’s Notre Dame, as the flatlanders struck for three in the first and two more in the third in a 19-hit assault.
Magrath managed six hits, as Jaxon Gruninger, Paycen Blackmore, Levi Gruninger, John Jones, Dustin Roe and Taylor Cook had one hit each.
On the mound, Noad worked one inning and gave up one earned run as he struck out one and gave up three hits. Jones threw two innings and gave up four hits and two earned runs, as he also struck out one and walked one. Cook worked four innings and gave up six runs on 12 hits and three walks.
The Zeniths fell 15-11 later in the day in the team’s fourth game of the weekend, despite an offensive explosion that included 17 hits, which featured a nine-run bottom of the first for Magrath.
It was a lead the team could not hold, however, as Magrath gave up six in the top of the sixth, which turned a 10-8 lead into a 14-10 deficit.
Levi Gruninger had four hits in a losing cause, while Dustin Roe and Paxton Maxwell had three hits each.
Jaxon Gruninger threw one-and-two-thirds innings and gave up four earned runs on five hits, three walks and two strikeouts. Nate Noad worked two innings and gave up three earned runs on seven hits. Roe worked three-and-one-third innings and surrendered seven earned runs on seven hits, four walks and three strikeouts.

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