Greyhounds blasted by Greensburg CC

By DEAN DELLAMALVA JR.

MVI Sports

The Monessen baseball team continues to struggle with the consistency one would expect from a young team.

However, the team is showing signs of improvement.

The Greyhounds fell to Greensburg Central Catholic Monday at Memorial Stadium, 12-1, in GCC’s first game of the season. 

The Centurions (1-0, 1-0) pounded out 12 hits and also stole 12 bases.

Monessen’s youthful battery – pitcher Josh Arnold and catcher Eli Covington – struggled keeping Greensburg Central Catholic in check.

“We have some young kids pitching, (Arnold) was asking me in the dugout how to throw to first base and we’ve been trying to do that at practice,” Hounds coach Billy Matush said. “It’s an evolving situation.”

One thing Arnold and reliever Josh Walters did accomplish was getting the ball over the plate, an area Monessen has battled with early in the season.

“Seems like we are improving a little bit each day, we are seeing some steps here and there” Matush said. “(GCC) came out and hit the ball really well today. I was happy that our pitchers threw strikes, which is step one because we haven’t done that all year.”

Greyhounds pitchers issued three walks in the contest, a considerable improvement from the nine walks in the season opener.

Something Monessen seemed to fix during their two-game series with Bishop Canevin was plating runners.

However, the woes returned on Monday as the Greyhounds left eight runners on base, including multiple runners in the first and fifth innings.

To read the rest of the story, please see a copy of Tuesday’s Mon Valley Independent, call 724-314-0035 to subscribe or subscribe to our online edition at http://monvalleyindependent.com.