Nothwest Indiana- Portage 4 Griffith 0

In a Northwest Indiana tournament game, #25 Portage faced off against host Griffith. In a very different strategy, all teams in the tournament swing wood bats in order to change things up or give the game a different feel. Portage threw Indiana State commit David Jercha. Jercha is a 6-foot-5 RHP/1B that sits 80-83 touching 84. Jercha did a good job of pounding the strike zone and commanded his fastball to bothe sides of the plate giving Griffith trouble most of the night. Jercha pitched 5 innings including a strong fifth inning striking out the side. On the day, Jercha gave up 0 runs on four hits and struck out 6 plus guys.

Portage at the plate, was led by their two division one commits Gabe Acevedo (Western Illinois, and Jercha. Both picked up at least one hit and Acevedo had an RBI Sac fly. Zach Simmons also contributed an RBI. Chris Bruno (2012) is an unsigned RHP that works from a low ¾ arm slot. Bruno threw the last two innings of the game and was impressive with a lot of run on his fastball.

Griffith was impressive up the middle. Unsigned senior, Garrett Litke a MIF made a ton of plays at short. He was athletic with good hands. He made an impressive double play turn and also handled Jercha at the plate driving a ball into right. Jesse Smith (2013) had a quiet game offensively but showed good hands at second base. He is also one of Griffith’s top arms.

All in all, Portage’s pitchers were too much to handle on this day completely shutting out Griffith. In the fourth, Griffith threatened but a double play with the bases loaded ended the inning without a run being scored. Portage will take on Highland tonight in the second round of the NWI tournament.