Lions baseball earns win over SHAC rival Whiteoak

The Fairfield Lions avenged a loss from earlier this season by splitting the season series with rival Whiteoak, winning on Thursday (April 23) by a 4-1 score at Fairfield High School in Southern Hills Athletic Conference play. 

Fairfield got things rolling early with two runs in the bottom of the first inning as Cameron Miller singled to score Caleb Rice. The second run came when Van Bennington hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Miller from third base. 

WHS scored their lone run in the top of the fourth inning when Abe Flader hit a single to left field, allowing Caden Butler to score a run off an error in left field for a 2-1 score. 

The Lions added two runs in the bottom of the sixth when Zane Collins hit a ground ball to third base for a fielder’s choice, scoring Miller. The final run of the game came when Zach Ahsaruk hit a sacrifice fly to left field, scoring Ben Miller from third base. 

The Lions finished the game with seven hits and two errors, while Whiteoak had five hits and no errors. 

Fairfield was led by Cameron Miller at 3-for-3 with two runs, one RBI and a steal.

Ben Miller followed at 2-for-3 with a run scored. Rice was 1-for-3 with a run and a steal. Weston Baldwin finished 1-for-3. The Lions also saw Bennington, Collins and Ahsaruk all have one RBI. 

Ben Miller was the winning pitcher, finishing with six innings pitched, allowing no earned runs on five hits with 10 strikeouts. 

Anderson Humphreys pitched one inning with no earned runs or hits for the save.

Whiteoak had Flader finish 2-for-4 with a steal, and also with two hits was Jacob Kiley at 2-for-3. The Wildcats also had Butler at 1-for-2 with a walk and a steal. 

Izayah Clift forced a walk, and Lucas Pollard had two walks and two steals. Christian Hite forced two walks, while Gabe Michael had one steal. 

Clift pitched six innings for WHS where he allowed four earned runs and totaled nine strikeouts.

The win sends Fairfield to a SHAC record of 4-5 with an overall record of 5-11. Whiteoak is now 7-2 in the SHAC (first place in Div. II) and 9-8 overall.  

BOX SCORE
WHS    000 100 0 — 1 5 0 
FHS     200 002 x — 4 7 2