XENIA — Xenia Scouts manager Bubba Cates pointed to the Grady’s Field scoreboard and took notice of all the zeroes on it. In Friday night’s 5-2 home loss to the Licking County Settlers, he wasn’t thrilled about his team accounting for most of them.
“This was a well-pitched ballgame, and that’s why you’ll see 15 zeros out there,” he said. “There wasn’t a whole lot going on. It’s just one of those days. We out-hit them, but we just didn’t get those hits at the right time.”
The Scouts came up with nine hits (to eight for the Settlers), but they stranded runners on second and third in the third inning, had a baserunner thrown out trying to steal in the fourth, hit into a pair of double plays and left a Scout stranded on second in the ninth.
Meanwhile, Licking County starter Cody Maw was superb in the early going. He scattered five hits and struckout six Scouts in six innings of work.
“He threw a no-hitter last week, and kinda built off of that. We’re really confident when he’s out there on the mound for us. He’s a crafty lefty and he uses all that good stuff that you like to see out of a starting pitcher,” Settlers manager Joey Noro said.
Scouts starter Nick Cecil got out of a bases loaded jam in the first inning, but Licking County loaded them up again in the fourth and fifth and had better results. The Settlers scored three runs in the fourth and two more in the fifth. Xenia reliever Jacob Chrysler pitched the final four innings and gave up just one hit.
“Our guy was doing a good job, and he didn’t let them have many base runners for those first three innings, but all of a sudden they’ve got the bases loaded with no outs,” Cates said. “We got into that situation last night (in Thursday’s 8-1 win over Licking County), and got away with them scoring one run. This is more common. I just hope we don’t get in that situation very often.”
Caleb Bloye and Ryan O’Hearn both had three hits for Xenia. Kyle Hubbuch and Jason Moore each had a pair of hits for the Settlers.
With Friday’s loss, the Scouts haven’t won back-to-back games since the team swept first-year club Richmond on June 7-8.
Xenia (5-6) hits the road this weekend to play a pair of GLSCL games in Athens, Ohio against the Southern Ohio Copperheads (4-7). The two teams are within a game of each other in the South Division standings. They’ll play at 7:05 p.m. both Saturday and Sunday, June 18-19 at Bob Wren Stadium, which is located on the campus of Ohio University.
“Most of our guys haven’t been to Ohio University’s place. I think it has a lot of character. And guys like (Philadelphia Phillies hall of famer) Mike Schmidt and Dave Tobik (Detroit Tigers, Texas Rangers, Seattle Mariners) played there, and a hall of fame coach (Wren) was there, too. So we’re looking forward to it,” Cates said.
The Scouts’ next home game at AIA’s Grady’s Field will be a 7:05 p.m. start on Tuesday, June 21.
