Jack GlecklerChillicothe Gazette
CHILLICOTHE — When all seems dark and the deficit insurmountable, the Chillicothe Paints find ways to win.
Trailing Full Count by one run in the bottom of the ninth, Paints center fielder Eric Colaco stepped up to the plate with the bases loaded and one out. After a five-inning span in which the Paints scored just one run and allowed the Rhythm to take a two-run lead, the Paints were in a rhythm. Three hits and two walks had narrowed the deficit down enough to allow a potential walkoff.
Colaco, a junior at Denison who'd just earned his second North Coast Athletic Conference Player of the Year distinction back in May, made the possibility a reality. He lobbed a hit into left-center field, bringing around Alex Bemis and Felix Polanco to secure a 7-6 walkoff win for the Paints over the Rhythm.
"He's a great ballplayer, good kid, very baseball smart and he listens," Paints manager Daryin Lewis said. "I'm just letting him play his game and he's playing right into it. His first couple at-bats took a little bit for him to get settled, but once he got settled in, that's what you see right there. Player of the Year-type stuff right there."
With Thursday's win in tow, the Paints concluded their first three-game series of the season and locked in their first series sweep of a team this year. Here's what we learned, from the Paints' latest win over the Rhythm, as well as the series as a whole.
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First sweep in the books
After working through a 3-3 start to the year, the Paints now sit with a comfortable 6-3 record after taking all three games over the Rhythm at VA Memorial Stadium this past week. The 38-18 scoring margin is a nice stat to reflect on as well, thanks to their 21-7 win over the Rhythm in Game 2 of the series.
More importantly, it gave Lewis perhaps the best look at what caliber of team the Paints are in almost every aspect. Even when facing potential extra innings or staring down a deficit, the Paints aren't going to lie down.
"It shows me what what type of gritty ball team this is," Lewis said. "They could have just rolled over and played dead after that two-error inning and we gave up five runs, but they didn't. They understood that there's more outs that we get and we've got to utilize each out that we can get."
Clutch hitting coming in handy
Thursday's win might have come on a walkoff, but it was the clutch hitting throughout the series that let the Paints earn their first sweep of the year. Colaco's two-run double comes to mind. As does Alex Bemis, who racked up 10 RBIs through the series and scored three runs in an eighth-inning rally in Game 1. Ty Hatfield and Cole Raile also pulled their weight after each putting up two hits and scoring a combined three times on Thursday.
Whichever way the Paints cut it, they've been able to pull hits out when necessary. Lewis has noticed it, and the Rhythm got the message crystal clear. Give it time, and the Paints will only meld further as the season goes on and clutch hitting becomes more commonplace.
"They just have a lot of confidence in themselves," Lewis said. "Another thing I really emphasized was the fact that we needed to play team baseball here. We can't win a ballgame with a solo jack. We needed baserunners, and the first three batters really did a great job at working the count and working themselves onto the bases. What really makes this team such a great offensive club is they're very baseball intelligent. That is showing now that we're getting into a roll of things."
Human mistakes
One bad inning might spoil a game, and Chillicothe almost fell into that trap Thursday. Full Count scored five runs in the top of the fifth inning — all with two outs — and had the bases loaded before Paints starter Will Rettig muscled a strikeout to cut off the barrage. A pair of errors only added to the frustration and extended a rally that put Chillicothe on the backfoot.
The Paints worked through a frustrating fifth inning, however, and didn't let the pressure crack them. Lewis isn't stressing about the errors, either. Every player makes errors, it's a part of the game. As long as the Paints can work past those mistakes and keep their stride, Lewis is happy.
"Defensively, we're solid," Lewis said. "Mental mistakes are gonna happen, especially playing every single day. These guys are still growing in their game, and I can't expect them to be perfect all the time. But what I can expect is for them to bounce back from those mistakes, and that's exactly what they did. They didn't hang their heads. They kept their heads up and they kept playing hard, and that's all I can ask out of a team like this."
