Chillicothe Paints win Eastern Conference title, advance to championship series

The Chillicothe Paints, presented by Cohen Orthopedic, are headed to the Prospect League Championship Series with a 12-0, seven-inning victory over the Springfield Lucky Horseshoes Tuesday night at VA Memorial Stadium in Chillicothe.

The Ohio River Valley Division Champion and now Eastern Conference Champion Chillicothe Paints will travel to the Western Conference Champion Quincy Gems Thursday for the first game of the best-of-three championship series.

Chillicothe got started right away in the bottom of the first inning as leadoff man Tyler Shaneyfelt singled, stole second, advanced to third on an error and scored on a double by two-hitter Cole Kwiatkowski. Kwiatkowski scored on a Tim Orr groundout, and the Paints had all the runs they would need leading 2-0 after the first.

The Paints would add more in the second, though, as Jimmy Nugent scored Owen Wilson with a double to left center, Cameron Bowen scored CJ Dean on a sacrifice fly, and Kwiatkowski scored Nugent on a sacrifice fly to make it 5-0 Paints after two innings.

The third came around, and the Paints weren't done scoring yet. Victor Figueroa singled to lead it off, Wilson tripled to bring home Mason Eckelman and Figueroa, and Dean singled home Wilson to push the score to 8-0 heading into the fourth.

In the bottom of the sixth, the Paints added four more runs to give the game its shot to end early with a Paints mercy rule victory in sight, leading 12-0.

While the Paints were pushing as many runs across as they could on offense, Paints' starting pitcher Will Rettig was shoving on the mound. Rettig had a no-hitter going through three innings. He eventually gave up his first hit to the Lucky Horseshoes in the fourth, but that was the first and last hit. Rettig shut down the Lucky Horseshoes' lineup through 6.2 innings, finishing just one batter shy of a complete-game shutout.

Jackson Bergman came in in relief for the Paints and finished it off, facing one batter and striking him out to give the Paints their second consecutive Eastern Conference Championship.

Inside The Box Score

• The 'Shoes were held to just one hit through the seven-inning contest as Paints' starting pitcher Will Rettig finished with 6.2 innings, one hit, no runs, four walks and four strikeouts.

• The Lucky Horseshoes recorded five errors in the game, resulting in five unearned runs granted to the Paints.

• The Paints scored their 12 runs on 12 hits, including a 3-3 night from Tyler Shaneyfelt, who scored two runs, and 2-2 night from Owen Wilson, who recorded a double, a triple, two runs scored and two RBIs.

Notes

• This is the Paints' Prospect League record sixth Championship Series appearance, as they will look to become only the second team ever to go back-to-back.

• The Paints have now made the Prospect League Championship Series in three of the last four seasons, only missing out in 2021.

• The Lucky Horseshoes finish their longest playoff run by falling in their first Conference Championship appearance.

Up Next

Chillicothe advances to Thursday, Saturday and Sunday's Prospect League Championship Series. They will face the Western Conference Champion Quincy Gems.

Game one will be on the road for Chillicothe, before hosting game two on Saturday and the if-needed game three on Sunday. Tickets for Saturday in Chillicothe are available at https://flashtix.cc/baseball-103123402.