Fairborn’s Zac Gillespie rounds second base during baseball action against Springfield on Thursday night at the Athletes in Action Sports Complex in Xenia.
XENIA — Springfield jumped out early and Fairborn couldn’t recover as the Skyhawks fell 8-2 in a GWOC cross-over matchup Thursday evening at the Athletes in Action complex in Xenia.
The Wildcats pushed a single run across the plate in the top of the first, then broke things open with four more runs in the second inning to grab a 5-0 lead.
Junior hurler Kenny Dixon was the beneficiary of the early runs for Springfield and he picked up the win by going 5-plus innings, allowing six hits and one run. Dixon left the game after a leadoff triple by Fairborn’s Bronson Marlett in the bottom of the sixth inning. B.J. Bush relieved Dixon on the mound and finished the game for the Wildcats.
Fairborn (1-1) got on the scoreboard in the fourth when Zac Gillespie tripled and later scored on a single by Andrew Johnson. Johnson finished the night with two hits for the Skyhawks.
Fairborn pulled to within 5-2 in the sixth inning when Marlett tripled and came home on an RBI groundout by Jason Moorman.
On the hill for Fairborn, James Jessee got the start and after a rocky start, he settled down and gave the Hawks a quality outing. Jessee went 6-plus innings, allowing six runs on 10 hits. He was victimized by three Fairborn errors in the field, one on a would-be double play ball to end an inning.
Springfield added three insurance runs in the top half of the seventh courtesy of back-to-back long balls. Jessee started the inning on the mound for Fairborn, but was replaced by Nick Stevens after a leadoff single by Dixon. Jimmy Powell gave Stevens a rude welcoming as the righty blasted a towering two-run home run off the scoreboard in left field. Bush followed with a homer of his own to left to make the score 8-2 Wildcats.
Powell was the hitting star for Springfield as he had a two-run single in the second inning to go with his two-run HR.
Jordan Moore had three hits and drove in two runs, while Titus Montgomery added two singles. Springfield had 13 hits as a team.
On Fairborn’s side, Marlett and Gillespie both had triples, but all the other five Fairborn hits were all singles. Andrew Johnson had two singles, while Brad Hall, Mark Swope and Jason Newsome all had one single apiece for the Skyhawks.
Fairborn gets back to action on Saturday with a home doubleheader scheduled against McClain. The first game is set to start at noon.
