XENIA — An explosive sixth inning led to a 4-0 boys high school baseball home victory for the Xenia Buccaneers over the Greenon Knights.
The win brings the Bucs to a 3-0 record. They have only allowed one run in the three games they have played.
The Bucs had six people get on base (five hits, one walk) and scored three of their four runs in the bottom of the sixth inning. Xenia coach Barry Claus highlighted the work of his only freshman, Aaron Adkins, who delivered an RBI single to help seal the game.
“It felt really good to hit that,” Adkins said. “It was a big one and I saw it coming as the pitch came down I knew exactly where I wanted to put it.”
Aydan Evans, Andrew Pollander, Alex Sparks and Ben Hatfield (run in by Dylan Hall) scored the runs for the Buccaneers while pitcher Warren Mahar picked up the win.
“It was the first tight game we’ve been in,” Claus said. “We battled out of some tight jams and that’s what good teams do.”
Just before Xenia’s big sixth inning, they had to get out of a jam in the fifth. The Knights were down by one with the bases loaded looking to take the lead. Xenia pitcher Blayne Dudley managed to get his team out of the hole by getting the third out on a strikeout to end the inning.
“He found his curveball at just the right time,” Claus said. “Greenon left 10 men stranded on base and that was a big difference in the game.”
The loss was Greenon’s first of the season. The Knights responded with a 9-0 win at South Charleston Southeastern on Thursday, March 28 to raise their record to 3-1 (1-0 Ohio Heritage Conference).
Claus said he was happy with how his team responded to the pressure, but there was definitely things they needed to continue working on.
“For pitching, five walks is too many if we are going to be a championship caliber team,” Claus said. “I also want us to improve in our base running because we had a guy that got caught leading off too far and he was picked off. We can’t make those mistakes if we want to get to the next level of play.”
Xenia will next play at 11 a.m., Saturday, March 30 at home against Chaminade Julienne.
