Baseball U’s Gavin Sopko is an East Stroudsburg University commit.
By Will Harrigan
An unusual but impressive sign of a well-played baseball game appeared at Diamond Nation on Wednesday afternoon: A full seven innings in the books with quite a bit of time to spare on the game clock.
But both CT Grind 2025 and Baseball U-Pocono played so well that we couldn’t get a winner out of it. In fact, the entire contest featured a grand total of three hits.
After seven innings of play, a late comeback by Baseball U and a missed opportunity in the bottom half of the seventh for the Grind lead to a 1-1 tie in the Blue Chip Prospects showcase.
After losing its second game of the afternoon to Complete Game Colonials 17U Red, the Grind ended their week with a 1-2-1 record. The game was the summer finale for Baseball U Pocono, which wrapped up its week at 2-1-1.
With two men on and no outs in the bottom half of the seventh, Baseball U pitcher Anthony Knight fielded a bunt off Jeter Andrews’ bat, and boldly fired to third for the force out.
Recovering from a wild pitch that moved both men into scoring position, Knight would then strikeout Jake Goldshore and induce a flyout to right field off the bat of Ben Parente to foil the last-ditch CT Grind rally.
CT Grind 2025’s Jack Armstead comes to the set in 17/18U Blue Chip Prospects tournament.
“We probably should have won it there. But we had a lot of missed opportunities including the inning before,” lamented CT Grind coach John Ascenzia.
Baseball U-Pocono’s Ty Borger and Jack Armstead of the Grind put forth quite a pitchers duel over the first five innings. In fact, in that entire span of play, the Grind’s Jack Shannon’s single accounted for the only hit.
Shannon’s single was sandwiched around a pair of walks surrendered by Borger, but the right-hander would work out of the bases-loaded jam by recording a strikeout.
Meanwhile, Armstead cruised through his first six innings, only allowing one runner – East Stroudsburg commit Gavin Sopko, who was hit by a pitch – to reach scoring position. Armstead finished with eight strikeouts.
“That’s what Jack does. He mixes speeds but can really dial it up when he wants. To throw a complete game in 80 pitches like he did today is impressive,” said Ascenzia.
In the seventh, Armstead struck Jayden Martinez with a pitch leading off the inning. Two batters later – and immediately after the Grind missed a would-be double play by a millisecond on a force out – Brayden Sweppenheiser roped a single to level things up for Baseball U.