Rutland’s late burst too much for Jordan

The Jordan Red Jackets let an opportunity to advance in the Region 2-3A standings slip away on Tuesday as they dropped a 17-8 region contest to Rutland.

After a scoreless first inning, the Hurricanes jumped on the Red Jackets with a four-run second inning. After three straight singles, Hugo Gaddy cleared the bases with a double and later scored himself to give Rutland the first runs of the game.

The two teams traded runs back and forth in the middle innings until the Jordan bats finally came alive in the bottom of the fifth inning. Zach Jackson opened the inning by reaching on a Rutland error, then a Hunter Boswell single and Bryce Long double put the Red Jackets in business. All three would come around to score as well as Zach Tice, who reached on the second Rutland error of the inning, to pull Jordan to within 8-6.

Then the Hurricanes struck back in a big way, scoring nine runs in the game’s final two innings.

Sydney Phillips spelled Jordan starter John Kropaczewski and got the final out of the fifth before running into trouble the final two innings. He allowed four runs in the sixth inning and hit the first two Rutland batters in the top of the seventh before yielding to Seth Burgess, who allowed three runs himself in a five-run inning for the Hurricanes.

“I think we’re a young team in spots,” said Jordan coach Tony Dimitri. “When we cut it to 8-6, it’s a shutdown inning next inning; get back in there and pounding back on. We couldn’t do that. We struggled all year on doing that.

“Give (Rutland) credit, they swung the bat and they put it in play when they had to.”

Dimitri and Jordan have two days to prepare before heading to Macon to face Rutland again on Friday. The coach says it may be gut check time for some of his Jackets.

“You find out how tough they are,” said Dimitri. “In practice, you’re going to see who’s going to quit, and to be honest with you, you’re going to try and make them quit. You’ll see which ones give the effort, and those are the ones you’ll go to war with. I think you have to push them.”

Playing away from Jordan may actually be to the Red Jackets’ favor. They currently are 7-1 on the road and just 3-6 at their home field.

“Everything is still in our grasp. We play well on the road, and sad to say, we don’t play well at home. If we split (Friday), that’s our goal. That’s the objective, and we move on to next week,” Dimitri said.

This story was originally published April 5, 2016 at 9:45 PM with the headline "Rutland’s late burst too much for Jordan."