Vs. Crooksville (4/12)
The Crooksville Ceramics came to Zanesville to play the Blue Devils at Jay Payton Field on Saturday. The game started off slowly, with neither team scoring in the first inning. The Ceramics hit the scoreboard first in the top of the 2nd inning off of a fielder’s choice by Cottrell, taking an early 1 – 0 lead before Noah Darnes ended the inning by striking out the final batter. The Devils answered back in the bottom of the 2nd with a sacrifice fly by Darnes to allow Elijah Curtis to score and tie up the game at 1 – 1. Crooksville grabbed back the lead with a run in the bottom of the 3rd to set the score at 2 – 1 Ceramics. In the bottom of the 3rd, the Blue Devils landed a run off of a fly ball to right field by Canon Mercer that brought Solomon Norris across the plate for the tying run. Mahki Murray scored on the next at bat to take the go-ahead run. Tyson Kimble stepped up to the plate to hit a sacrifice to the pitcher to allow Mercer to take the final run of the inning, topping the scoreboard at Zanesville 4 – Crooksville 2. The Ceramics popped out a run in the top of the 4th but still trailed the Blue Devils by one as Zanesville went back to their batting lineup. Norris popped a single to right field to allow Greyson Goins to score and push the lead to 5 – 3 Zanesville. During the next at-bat, Murray sacrificed to score Norris before ending the inning up 6 – 3. The Ceramics couldn’t muster a run in the next two innings as the Blue Devils drove the final nail in the bottom of the 6th when Darnes scored on an error followed by Norris scoring on a ground out by Murray to cap Zanesville’s score at 8. Crooksville went down in the top of the 7th in a double-play followed by a strike-out to give the Devils the 8 – 3 victory.
On Friday, the Blue Devils rode the bus to play Licking Heights. Zanesville grabbed a 3 – 0 lead by the top of the 3rd inning, but Licking Heights tied the game at 3 in the bottom of the inning. Zanesville landed a run in the top of the 5th to jump back up to a 4 – 3 lead, but Licking Heights tied the game at 4 in the bottom of the 7th. There was no score in the 8th inning, so the two teams walked away with a 4 – 4 draw.
The Blue Devils beat Newark Catholic 1 – 0 and the Watkins Memorial Warriors 7 – 4 earlier in the week.
Zanesville will be hosting a doubleheader against the Madison Rams on Saturday. Game one starts at 12 PM.
