XENIA — At one point Xenia’s Blaine Dudley wore six rally caps and a teammates sunglasses atop his head, in hopes of sparking a seventh-inning rally, Monday June 26 in an ACME Baseball Congress summer league high school baseball game against Bellefontaine.
Maybe he should’ve wore a few more caps. Despite limiting the visiting Chieftains to four hits in the seven-inning contest, Bellefontaine escaped Xenia High School’s baseball diamond with a 4-3 win.
Dudley started the game and limited Bellefontaine to a run and a hit through the first three inning of play. But Bellefontaine tagged the Xenia righty with with a pair of hits (one of which was a two-RBI double) to claim three runs in the fourth.
The Xenia starter stayed on the mound in the fifth, but with two out Dudley hit the next two Chieftains and walked another. That brought on reliever Dylan Hall who ended the Bellefontaine threat by striking out the next Chieftains batter with the bases loaded.
Hall fanned four of the first five batters he faced (six in all), and gave up one hit over the final 2 1/3 innings.
Logan Bilbrey scored Xenia’s first run on a Bellefontaine first-inning error. Trevor Shepherd trotted home with the team’s second run in the fourth when Dudley drew a bases loaded walk. Bilbrey singled to right to score Shepherd with the third Xenia run in the sixth inning, but the team was retired in order in the bottom of the seventh to end the game.
Xenia had its chances to rally. They had the bases loaded in the second, but didn’t score, and they had bases loaded in the fourth and sixth innings but could manage only a pair of runs.
Bilbrey and Shepherd each got on base with each of their plate appearances. Bilbrey went 2-for-2 with a run scored and another knocked in. He also reached on a walk and was hit by a pitch. Shepherd also was 2-for-2 at the plate. He scored twice and also got on base with a second-inning walk.
When some see the word ACME, they look around for bird seed or maybe an anvil, but there’s no road runners or coyotes involved here. The ACME Baseball Congress is a non-profit organization comprised of 72 teams from throughout western Ohio.
Xenia is in ACME District 5, with Allen East, Bluffton, Crestview, Delphos Jefferson, Elida, Lima Central Catholic, Lima Bath, Lima Shawnee, Lincolnview, St. Mary’s, Van Wert and Wapakoneta. Bellefontaine is in District 6 with New Paris Graham, Indian Lake, London, Mechanicsburg, Northeastern, Riverside, Springfield, Springfield Shawnee, New Carlisle Tecumseh, West Liberty and Greene County’s Greeneview.
The ACME post season tournaments get under way, starting July 1-5 with the double-elimination sectional tournament. District tourney action runs July 9-12 and is also played with a two-losses-and-you’re-out format. The single-elimination ACME state championship tournament is scheduled to take place July 15-17 in Lima.