By the time Roncalli was finished putting 13 runs on the board through its five trips to the plate Wednesday night, the only drama left to be settled was whether Columbus East would avoid a no-hitter.
Unfortunately for the Olympians, they could not. JJ Prendergast no-hit East on 11 strikeouts in a 13-0, five-inning decision.
“He’s a really good arm,” East coach Jon Gratz said. “We struggled to hit him today. We couldn’t hit his fastball, and that’s not a good sign. So we have to get better at that.”
Prendergast nearly had a perfect game. The only baserunner for the Olympians (4-13) came when Chase Niese, leading off the fourth, reached on a third-strike wild pitch.
Niese went all the way to third on another wild pitch with nobody out in the fourth. But Prendergast induced a fly ball to right, a strikeout and a groundout to second to keep East off the board.
By that time, the Royals (14-4) already had a 6-0 lead. They put it away by scoring seven more times in the fifth.
Roncalli managed only a combined seven hits off East starter Jordan Flanders and relievers Parker Harris and Jace Jones. But the trio combined to walk nine batters and hit three more and were plagued by three errors behind them.
“We can’t give up so many free bases. In the games where we’ve given up a lot of runs, that’s been the story — just giving up free bases and other teams taking advantage of that,” Gratz said. “Walks will kill you. I counted 16 free bases. It doesn’t matter how you hit when you give up that many free bases. You’re going to be in trouble.”
The Olympians will try to bounce back when they host crosstown rival Columbus North at 7 p.m. Friday.
“We’ll learn from it and come back today and have a good practice and work to get better,” Gratz said.
