Fairborn’s James Jessee swings at a pitch during varsity baseball action against Xenia on Thursday night at Fairborn High School. Xenia catcher Jon Rose is on the right.
FAIRBORN — This time, all Fairborn needed was one good inning.
The Skyhawks put together a six-run sixth inning, punctuated by Brad Hall’s 3-run homer, and Fairborn came back to beat Xenia 12-7 on Thursday night.
“We had a tough loss the night before and it took us a little while to wake up,” said Fairborn head coach Rob Smith. “Xenia is a lot like us in that we both play tough, but that one bad inning kills us. It didn’t kill us for a change.”
The Bucs (6-10, 4-5 GWOC?South) held a 7-5 lead through five innings, but too many walks caught up with them in the sixth. Fairborn’s Bronson Marlett started the inning with a single, and Xenia walked the next three batters before James Jessee slapped a 2-RBI double off relief pitcher Jon Rose to put the Hawks (10-10, 4-6 South) ahead 8-7.
Hall followed that up with a three-run dinger — his first of the season — plating Jason Moorman, Jessee and himself to give Fairborn an 11-7 lead, and Ben Wolfe’s RBI single off Josh Hiney gave the Hawks their final score.
“I take the blame for this one because I made the choices,” said Xenia head coach Rick Lorenzo. “We played well enough to win. I brought in Jon and I probably should have put Hiney in before that. I didn’t, and that’s just the way it goes sometimes.”
Freshman Jaycen Newsome (6-1) got the win pitching for the Hawks through six innings of work. He gave up nine hits, but he had plenty of run support behind him.
“Jaycen battled. He didn’t have his best stuff, but he gutted it out,” Smith said. “He’s been fortunate that we’ve scored enough runs behind him.”
Joey Everhart’s 2-RBI double in the first inning gave Xenia an early 2-0 lead, but the Hawks had RBI doubles from Moorman and Hall to tie the game up at 2 after one inning. Xenia plated two more in the second after an RBI triple from Hiney to go up 4-2, but Fairborn chipped into that lead after an RBI single from Jessee in the third.
Rose hit a solo homer in the fourth to make it 5-3 in favor of Xenia, and the Bucs added to that lead with a 2-RBI single from Troy Koze in the fifth.
Fairborn got within two runs after Zac Gillespie was walked in and Austin Harrison smacked an RBI single to score Moorman.
Jordan Scott started on the mound and lasted five innings for Xenia, giving up seven hits.
Fairborn will take on Wilmington tonight at Wright State, while Xenia will travel to Springboro.
