Lions move on to district semifinals 

LEESBURG — On Thursday, the No. 8 seeded Fairfield Lions opened the Division VII SE District Tournament with a convincing home win against the No. 9 seeded Ironton St. Joseph Central Flyers by a 7-1 score in the quarterfinal round. 

On an unusually cool day in late May, the Lions and Flyers battled to advance to the next round of the tournament, and Fairfield didn’t disappoint the home fans as they got on the board first with a two-run bottom of the third inning, and later followed that with a run in the fourth and four more runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to gain the six-run win. 

St. Joseph scored their lone run in the top of the fourth inning. 

The bottom of the third inning was huge for the Lions with Corey Zimmerman hitting a single to left field to lead off the inning, The next batter, Corbin Willey, saw two pitches in the at-bat, and the second pitch he saw he smashed the ball over the right field fence for a two-run home run, putting the Lions in front by a 2-0 score. Willey finished 2-for-4 with one run and four RBI. 

Blaine Fauber also had a hit in the first inning but was left stranded, as the first three batters for FHS all had a hit. 

In the top of the fourth inning, St. Joseph scored a run on a passed ball as Wesley Neal crossed home plate for a 2-1 score. 

The Lions got the run back in the bottom of the fourth with Caleb Rice reaching the bases on a dropped third strike, which was a passed ball. Rice moved to second base, then stole third. Rice raced home on a base hit to right field by Zane Matthews for a 3-1 lead. 

Fairfield added to their lead in the sixth inning, piecing together a four-run inning, starting with a one-out single hit to centerfield by Otis Cockerill as Cockerill ended the day at 2-for-3. 

Heath Flint entered the game as a pinch runner for Cockerill, and he raced to second base on a passed ball. Flint went to third base as Rice took first base on an error. 

Matthews (1-for-3, one run, one RBI, one walk) followed with a walk, and with the bases loaded (and a pitching change) Corey Zimmerman was hit by a pitch, scoring Flint. Zimmerman for the game went 1-for-3 with two runs, one RBI, a HBP and a walk. 

Next, runs were scored off a single by Willey, scoring Rice and Matthews for a 6-1 score. 

Fairfield’s final run of the inning and the game came off a sacrifice fly to centerfield by Fauber, scoring Zimmerman from third base, giving the Lions a 7-1 lead. Fauber went 1-for-2 with one walk and a SAC. 

For the game, Fairfield finished with seven hits and committed three errors, while St. Joseph totaled two hits and committed two errors. Fauber, Matthews and Rice all had a steal. 

On the mound, Cameron Miller was the winning pitcher, ending his day with 4.2 innings pitched, finishing with 106 pitches, 57 for strikes. He allowed one earned run on one hit and five walks with eight strikeouts. 

Willey ended the day with 2.1 innings pitched in relief. He allowed no runs on one hit and one walk with four strikeouts. Willey totaled 45 pitches, 27 for strikes. 

Next for the No. 8 seeded Fairfield Lions (10-9) is a Division VII SE DIstrict Semifinal game on Thursday, May 29 at Logan High School against No. 1 seeded South Webster at 2 p.m. SWHS defeated New Boston in the quarterfinal round by a 12-2 score. 

BOX SCORE
SJHS    000 100 0 — 1 2 2 
FHS      002 104 x — 7 7 3