District Final Preview: Hillsboro to take on Circleville for ticket to regionals
Lead Summary
By
Stephen Forsha-sforsha@gmail.com
Hitting their stride at the absolute right time as a baseball team, the Hillsboro Indians are now one win away from earning a district championship, plus a ticket to the Division II Regional Semifinals, as they take on the Circleville Tigers this Thursday in the district finals in Athens at Ohio University. The game was originally scheduled for Wednesday, May 16 but was postponed due to weather.
The No. 7 seeded Indians enter the game at 14-11 overall as winners of their past eight games, while the Circleville Tigers, at 16-9 overall, are winners of their past nine games. The Indians this postseason have defeated New Lexington by a 5-3 score, Washington by a 14-4 score in five innings and most recently in the district semifinals defeated the Gallia Academy Blue Devils, 1-0 in eight innings.
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Circleville — a No. 5 seed — has defeated Fairfield-Union 9-4 in the sectional finals and in their district semifinal game on Monday took down the No. 1 seeded Zane Trace Pioneers by a 12-5 score.
In Circleville’s win over the Pioneers, they scored all 12 of their runs in the final three innings, including six runs in the fifth inning, five runs in the sixth and one final run in the seventh inning. Circleville in that win totaled 14 hits and two errors.
The Tigers finished 9-5 in the Mid-State League, third place within the Buckeye Division. That is similar to the Indians as they were also third in the Frontier Athletic Conference, finishing with a conference mark of 5-5.
According to MaxPreps.com, the Tigers are batting .300 as a team and have an on-base percentage of .398. Circleville’s team ERA is 2.23.
Also in their MaxPreps stats, the Tigers have four batters who are batting over .300 with at least 16 games played at the time of the stats were posted. Those batters are Andrew Barnhardt (.340), Brad Henry (.370), Garret Gray (.392) and Seth Risner (.341).
In their win over Gallia Academy, Hillsboro had two hits and one RBI from Ethan Watson, while Jared Thompson and Payton Bell each had one hit. Watson’s RBI was the game-winner in the bottom of the eighth inning as he knocked in Bell from second base for the one-run win.
The Indians also had stout pitching from Luke Magulac, who pitched the first six innings and totaled 10 strikeouts, and Ethan Humphries, who pitched two innings of relief with two strikeouts in the shutout win.
The Indians and Tigers are scheduled to play at Ohio University on Thursday, May 17 at 5 p.m.
The No. 7 seeded Indians enter the game at 14-11 overall as winners of their past eight games, while the Circleville Tigers, at 16-9 overall, are winners of their past nine games. The Indians this postseason have defeated New Lexington by a 5-3 score, Washington by a 14-4 score in five innings and most recently in the district semifinals defeated the Gallia Academy Blue Devils, 1-0 in eight innings.
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Circleville — a No. 5 seed — has defeated Fairfield-Union 9-4 in the sectional finals and in their district semifinal game on Monday took down the No. 1 seeded Zane Trace Pioneers by a 12-5 score.
In Circleville’s win over the Pioneers, they scored all 12 of their runs in the final three innings, including six runs in the fifth inning, five runs in the sixth and one final run in the seventh inning. Circleville in that win totaled 14 hits and two errors.
The Tigers finished 9-5 in the Mid-State League, third place within the Buckeye Division. That is similar to the Indians as they were also third in the Frontier Athletic Conference, finishing with a conference mark of 5-5.
According to MaxPreps.com, the Tigers are batting .300 as a team and have an on-base percentage of .398. Circleville’s team ERA is 2.23.
Also in their MaxPreps stats, the Tigers have four batters who are batting over .300 with at least 16 games played at the time of the stats were posted. Those batters are Andrew Barnhardt (.340), Brad Henry (.370), Garret Gray (.392) and Seth Risner (.341).
In their win over Gallia Academy, Hillsboro had two hits and one RBI from Ethan Watson, while Jared Thompson and Payton Bell each had one hit. Watson’s RBI was the game-winner in the bottom of the eighth inning as he knocked in Bell from second base for the one-run win.
The Indians also had stout pitching from Luke Magulac, who pitched the first six innings and totaled 10 strikeouts, and Ethan Humphries, who pitched two innings of relief with two strikeouts in the shutout win.
The Indians and Tigers are scheduled to play at Ohio University on Thursday, May 17 at 5 p.m.