SIMULATED XENIA — In perhaps the most exciting simulation of a high school baseball game this season so far, the visiting Beavercreek Beavers needed a two-out grand slam by Jake Elmore to claim a come-from-behind 7-6 win over Greeneview, Thursday March 26 at Athletes In Action’s Grady’s Field.
Moments after a double play left the Battlin’ Beavers down to their final out, Clay Cash hit a single into left field. Then Ethan Tedder and Nick Brown each drew walks to load the bases. Elmore, batting ninth in the Beavercreek lineup had been hitless in his previous four at-bats, with a fly out, ground out and a pair of walks.
But on a 1-2 pitch, Elmore lifted a high fly toward left center field. The ball appeared as if it was going to fall just inside the Grady’s Field outside fencing, but with a strong wind blowing towards left field, the ball just cleared the fence instead, scoring all four batters for the go-ahead score.
Greeneview, which had led by a 6-3 score heading into the top of the ninth, was able to put Zack Hackney on second base with the tying run, with Ian Tamplon perched on first with the go-ahead run after drawing a walk, but Beavers reliever Kevin Bellamy got the final batter to ground the ball back to the mound for an easy throwout at first.
Elmore’s heroics overshadowed a two-home run, four-runs batted in performance from Greeneview’s Hunter Anderson.
Anderson clouted a two-run home run to score himself and Luke Evans in the second inning. The two Rams scored in the same fashion in the fourth inning as well.
Beavercreek first grabbed the lead in the second inning when — again after grounding into a double play — the Beavers sent five straight batters on the bases. Cash singled, Brown, Tedder and Elmore each drew walks. Cash walked home on Elmore’s walk to first, then Tedder and Brown both scored on a Dylan Salyers single.
Anderson’s first homer pulled the Rams within one run, 3-2, after two innings of play. Hackney then crossed with the tying score on Tamplin’s sacrifice fly. Anderson’s second two-run dinger gave the Rams a 5-3 lead, then Jack Nix’s score off Evans’ single to left in the sixth gave Greeneview a 6-3 lead.
Then Elmore and the wind spoiled things.
Evans led Greeneview with three hits and an RBI in his four plate appearances, and he scored twice. Anderson had his two home runs, and Hackney had a pair of singles, as the other two multi-hitting Rams on Thursday night.
Lead-off hitter Salyers led the Beavers at the plate with a 4-for-5 outing, which included a double and two RBI. Cash was Beavercreek’s other multi-hit player, going 3-for-4 with a walk and two runs scored.
Nix, the Rams’ starting pitcher, had kept the Beavers scoreless from the third through eighth innings, but was pulled in the ninth. He had one strikeout, nine walks, and nine hits in his outing, and got Beavers hitters to ground into two double plays.
Beavers starting pitcher Tedder struck out eight Rams batters in eight innings of work.
SOCIALLY DISTANT DUGOUTS: The game didn’t have many player changes in it, because all six of the Athletes In Action ball diamond dugouts and two tents were utilized in an effort to keep each simulated team member socially distant from the other.
Red Tape: The licensing agreement between Aim Media Midwest, the Cincinnati Reds and Major League Baseball is believed to be bouncing around through the Aim Media chain of command to be signed. The agreement is rumored to be somewhere in Texas, on a Greyhound bus. Heading westward.
NEXT:
It’s softball time! The Xenia Buccaneers and Fairborn Skyhawks girls softball teams are scheduled to play the season’s first simulated game, simulated weather permitting, of course.