Although the Grizzlies fell to the Knight Hawks of Palmdale, 12-6, in extra innings on Tuesday, head coach Marc Kennedy isn’t letting one loss dictate how Golden Valley approaches the rest of the season.
Instead, he’s using the loss to the Hawks as a learning opportunity for his team to get better as the Grizzlies prepare to pick up Foothill League play after a week off.
“You know, this group is different than the years in the past,” said Kennedy. “This wasn’t our first rodeo in a game like that, and we’ve had a couple of them, and we found ways to compete and win. Today it was kind of the opposite of that … Everything that could go wrong did go wrong. We’re going to call this a Murphy’s law game today.”
After the third inning of the game, the Grizzlies (6-3, 0-2) took a 4-1 lead over the Hawks (6-3, 0-2) and looked poised to come away with the victory.
But in the top of the fifth inning, the Hawks rallied and scored four runs to take a narrow lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, the Grizzlies rallied back to score two runs after a one-run single from Ayden Renstrom and passed ball that brought in Andrew Markovich.
The Hawks came back and tied the game at 6 apiece after the top of the sixth and after a scoreless frame from the Grizzlies in the bottom of the sixth inning, the game was tied going into the seventh.
On the mound, Aiden Kane held the Hawks to a scoreless frame and with the opportunity to walk off the Hawks, the Grizzlies rallied in the bottom of the seventh with the bases loaded and two outs.
But with the game-winning run 90 feet away, Kane struck out and left all three runners on base.
After the game, Kennedy said the Hawks’ pitchers made good pitches, and the Golden Valley hitters couldn’t score.
“The approach was to go up there and get a good pitch and see if you can hit it hard,” he said. “It didn’t go in our favor so tip your cap, the kid made a really good pitch.”
In the top of the eighth inning, the Hawks rallied and scored six runs to take the lead and win after the team held the Grizzlies scoreless in the next half-inning.
With the loss, the Grizzlies dropped their first non-league game of the season after six straight wins. And despite the loss, Kennedy told his team after the game to use the loss as a learning opportunity for the next stretch of games Golden Valley has scheduled.
“We know what we’re capable of earlier this year versus what that was and knowing that’s not us, that’s not indicative of where we’re at this year,” he said. “We have a tough stretch coming up … these next 10 days are going to test us but tomorrow we wake up and we get back to work and see what we can do on Wednesday.”
The Grizzlies host the Castaic Coyotes in the series opener at home on Wednesday with first pitch scheduled for 3:30 p.m.
