editorial@timesobserver.com

ROCKY GROVE — Youngsville took advantage of six Rocky Grove errors and broke open a tie game with a four-run fourth inning during an 11-5 victory over the Orioles on Wednesday at Rocky Grove High School.

With the win, Youngsville improves to 6-0 on the season with its next challenge coming Friday when it travels to Oswayo Valley for a nonregion outing.

“I wouldn’t say it was our best game offensively,” said Youngsville coach Eddie Dorunda. “We need to start limiting the strikeouts, but we did have some timely hits.

“I thought David (Manning) pitched well for his first outing since season-ending surgery last season. A couple walks and weak base hits hurt him, but he’s going to build off that going into his next appearance. Wyatt (Dalrymple) continues to be a reliable third arm for us and he picked up his third win of the season.”

Senior Matt DeSimone got his big game going early, walking to lead off the game and stealing second before moving to third on a passed ball. Moments later, DeSimone scored on James Johnson’s sacrifice fly to start the night’s scoring.

“DeSimone is red hot right now,” said Dorunda. “He continues to get us rolling each game from the leadoff spot.”

With two outs, Manning reached on an error and Rylan Benton entered the game to run for him. Benton scored the game’s second run on an RBI groundout from Wyatt Dalrymple.

After a two-out RBI single from Rocky Grove’s Aaron Wetjen cut Youngsville’s lead to one, the Eagles responded with a three-run barrage in the top of the third.

The inning started with walks from DeSimone and Johnson and the lead grew to 4-1 after the completion of Nathan Lucks’ second at-bat of the game.

Lucks drove home DeSimone with an RBI single and Johnson scored on the accompanying error to push the lead to three. The final run of the inning came when Lucks scored on Brayden Baker’s RBI groundout.

The bottom of the third wasn’t as kind to the Eagles as the Orioles scored four runs to tie the game at 5-5.

The first two runs of the inning scored on Youngsville’s lone error of the game and back-to-back RBI singles from Mykah Stone and Wetjen made it a brand-new ball game with four innings to play.

Things didn’t stay tied for long.

DeSimone, Johnson and Lucks all hit RBI singles in successive at-bats to quickly put the Eagles back up 8-5. Dalrymple’s second RBI groundout of the day provided the inning’s fourth run and gave the Eagles all the cushion they would need.

Despite having that cushion, DeSimone wasn’t quite finished with his big game. After Cole Johnson reached on an error, DeSimone crushed a two-run homer to left to complete the scoring at 11-5.

DeSimone finished 2-for-3 with four runs scored and three RBIs. Lucks also collected two hits and James Johnson, Lucks and Cole Johnson all scored two runs.

Dalrymple earned his third victory of the year in relief of Manning, allowing two hits and striking out three in three innings of work.