McClain baseball defeats Green; Allison drives in 3 runs for Tigers
McClain senior Kaden Penwell was the winning pitcher against Green on Friday night. (HCP Photos/Jim Jones)
The McClain Tigers evened their season record to 2-2 on the season after a 9-5 victory over non-conference foe Franklin Furnace Green Friday night on Tom Hixson Field in Greenfield.
McClain got a strong pitching performance on the mound from senior Kaden Penwell, who went six-plus innings, giving up five runs on seven hits while striking out nine batters.
Freshman Benny Vangundy came in to finish the game on the mound, striking out both batters he faced with the bases loaded.
“KP (Kaden Penwell) went out there today and really shut their bats down, and he had a pile of strikeouts,” McClain head coach Kenny Branscom said. “Kaden is our bulldog out there on the mound. He’s throwing hard, hitting spots and has a good complimentary curveball this year, but the biggest thing we get out of him is he wants the baseball, and sometimes his emotions can get the best of him.
“Benny (Vangundy) is just a freshman, and he’s the quiet type that absolutely gets the job done. He works really hard all week long, and when you call his number, he’s always up there ready to go.”
The game didn’t start well for the Tigers when Penwell seemed to really be struggling with his control and walked the first three batters he faced. But he found his control and really settled in and gave up just one run on no hits and left two Green runners stranded on second and third.
Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the first, the McClain hitters came in hot, scoring four runs on three hits with Andrew Potts, Cohen Six and Conner McCune all driving in runs for a Tigers 4-1 advantage.
It looked like Green was going to have a big offensive inning in the third when they loaded the bases again, but Penwell pitched out of the jam, giving up just a single run on two hits, and he left two runners stranded.
The score remained 4-2 over the next couple of innings until the Tigers pushed across another run, using small ball by stealing a couple of bases then scoring on an RBI sacrifice fly off the bat of Owen Sykes.
McClain looked like they would put the game away in the bottom of the sixth inning when they scored four more runs on five hits with senior catcher Jayden Allison doing most of the damage with a bases-loaded double to give the Tigers a 9-5 lead.
But the kids from Green H.S. showed lot of heart and took advantage of Penwell maybe running out of gas on the mound to score three runs on three hits before Vangundy came in and retired those final two batters on strikes, preserving the win for the Tigers.
“Coming into this season, we thought our defense would be really good, our hitting would be great, but I thought our pitchers would probably struggle,” said Branscom. “But that’s what I get for thinking, because right now our pitching has been carrying us, and our hitting seems to be up and down.
“We had to address some issues when we got to the field today but I thought our guys really responded and showed a lot of character. We know how good we can be, we just have to get there.
“Our senior leadership on this team is something I have never seen before here at McClain,” Branscom continued. “We really rely on our seniors to step up in big moments, and they have. I’m really proud of these guys, and this was a big win against a really good team. Now we start league play on Monday at home against Washington.”
McClain, now 2-2 overall, host Washington Monday, April 1, and face Washington on the road April 2. They then travel to the V.A. in Chillicothe to play Southeastern on Thursday, April 4 in a 7:30 start time under the lights.
Batting leaders for McClain: Penwell 2-for-3, RBI, run; Potts 3-for-3, 3 runs; Allison 1-for-2, double, 3 RBIs; Eli Douglas 2-for-3, run; Conner McCune 1-for-4, 2 RBIs.
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