McClain moves on to district semifinals; earns 1-run win over New Lexington

The McClain Tigers baseball team is headed to the Division IV SE District Semifinals, as they gained a 4-3 victory over the visiting New Lexington Panthers Tuesday, May 19 at Tom Hixson Field in Greenfield at Mitchell Park. 

The Tigers (13-12) in their district quarterfinal game trailed 2-0 early on as New Lexington scored two runs in the top of the first inning. New Lexington had Dalton Waite hit a sacrifice fly to left field to plate Wyatt Givens. Their second run of the first was a single hit by Neil Spangler, scoring Gus Pearson. 

That deficit didn’t last long, as McClain scored all four of their runs in the bottom of the third inning for a 4-3 lead. In the third, the Tigers had Connor Chandler (1-for-3, one run, a steal) hit a single to second base, with Brycden Whitley (who led off the inning with a single) scoring a run on an error at first base on the throw. That same error saw Matthew Cummins (who reached the bases with a single) advance to third base, taking two bases on the error.

The Tigers tied the score at 2-2 when Hunter Peabody (1-for-3, one run, one RBI) singled past third base to score Matthew Cummins. The throw home allowed Chandler to advance to third base (he also stole second base in the at-bat by Peabody), and Peabody went to second base. 

Kolton Lamb — who finished 3-for-3 with one RBI and a steal — made it a 4-2 score with an RBI single past second base to score Cummins, and in the same sequence, Peabody scored on an error at first base for the two-run lead. 

New Lexington scored the final run of the game in the top of the fourth inning when Hudson Gardner singled to left field, scoring Carter Simpson. 

Easton Ary was the winning pitcher for the Tigers, who in six innings allowed three earned runs on seven hits and four walks with three strikeouts. Ary threw 103 pitches, 59 for strikes, facing 27 batters. 

Connor Chandler pitched one inning for the save where he allowed no runs, hits or walks. 

For New Lexington, Simpson was 2-for-3 with one run, and teammate Hudson Gardner went 2-for-4 with one run and one RBI. 

MHS also had Carson Chandler finish 1-for-3, and Ary went 1-for-3. Whitley went 1-for-3 with a run, and Cummins finished 1-for-2 with one run. Eli Douglas finished with a steal. 

McClain also finished the win with nine hits and no errors, as New Lexington had seven hits and three errors. 

Next for McClain is a Div. IV SE District Semifinal game on Saturday, May 23 at Ohio University’s Wren Stadium at 1:30 p.m.

BOX SCORE
NLHS    200 100 0 — 3 7 3 
MHS      004 000 x — 4 9 0