The Tri-Valley Varsity Baseball squad faced the Philo Electrics on Monday, April 26th. As they stepped onto the field, the Dawgs made their presence known by turning over the inning in the first four batters. In the bottom of the first inning, the Scotties landed two runs, the first off of a sacrifice fly from #24 Jake Kinder to bring #6, Aidan Fritter, across home plate, and the second was brought in on an error when #2 Hans Holmes hit a pop fly and reached first base which allowed #5 Ty Smith to make his way home setting the score after 1 inning to be Tri-Valley 2 – Philo 0
The second inning was a 1,2,3 for Philo and the Dawgs were right back up to bat thanks to some great pitching by #10 Bennet Baker. Once at bat, three singles from #9 Landon Harney, Bennett Baker, and Aidan Fritter set the stage for a trio of runs that ensued popping the Scotties lead to 5 – 0 over Philo by the end of the second.
Back at bat in the third inning the Dawgs followed the same working formula from the second and carried out single after single, loading the bases as they went and as #3 Jalen Goins-Chandler he popped a single to right field allowing Bennett Baker to cross home, followed by a single by Ty Smith bringing in Fritter, and finally, Jake Kinder hit a single to center while Ty Smith ran across home base ending the inning up 8 – 0.
Philo spent the next 4 innings trying to close the gap but with one final run from the Dawgs in the bottom of the 6th, the Electrics were only able to manage a total of four runs ending the game at Tri-Valley 9 – Philo 4.
Next on the schedule, the Scotties traveled to nearby Maysville on Tuesday, April 27th, where they opened the game with a 5-run first inning lighting up the Panther’s pitcher for a number of singles and a triple by #1 Trevor Yoder to start the score out 5 – 0.
Shutout pitching by #9 Landon Harney kept the Panthers from scoring and gave the Scotties the edge they needed to continue to light up the scoreboard for a total of 13 points including a Homer by Yoder in the sixth inning ending the game 13 – 0 against Maysville.
The last stop on the three-day tour ended at New Concord on Wednesday, April 28th, where the Dawgs met up with the Lil’ Muskies to try and continue their winning streak and hopefully gain some ground on MVL front-runner River View.
In a war of the pitchers, #2 Hans Holmes had a great game with eight strike-outs and just one allowed run. The two teams were scoreless for the first two innings and each grabbed a run in the third inning tying at 1 -1. After another scoreless inning Tri-Valley stepped up their game in the fifth inning with two runs brought about by singles from #9 Landon Harney, and #7 Luke Hill to take the lead at 3 – 1.
The last run of the game to top off scoring for the Scotties was on a home run by #6 Aidan Fritter to center field landing the final score at Tri-Valley 4 – John Glenn 1 and setting the overall record for Tri-Valley to 12 – 4, and the MVL record to 8 – 3.
Scotties faced a mostly rained-out week with early May showers and a game against West Muskingum on Thursday, May 6th.
