Mustangs take consecutive SHAC games against Eastern and Ripley

DODSONVILLE — Tuesday and Wednesday saw the Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs defend their home field and win on the road, as they took Southern Hills Athletic Conference wins over the Eastern Warriors and Ripley Blue Jays. 

Tuesday against the visiting Eastern Warriors the Mustangs won by a 12-4 score, but it was the Warriors leading 2-0 after the first inning (a two-run home run by Will Litzinger), and it wasn’t until the bottom of the fourth inning when the Mustang bats got hot. 

That inning LCHS scored six runs for a 6-2 lead, starting with Aiden Bene hitting a two-run home run over the left field fence for a 2-2 score, bringing home Tanner Roberts. 

The LCHS scoring continued in the bottom of the fourth with an Aric Slack bunt single that scored Trevor Niehaus for a 3-2 advantage. 

Lynchburg-Clay continued the bottom of the fourth with Luke Davis in as a courtesy runner for Slack, and he then stole second base and went to third on an error in the infield. Harley Lewis batted in Davis with a single past the shortstop. 

The fifth and sixth runs scored by the Mustangs crossed home plate as Lewis scored on a passed ball, followed by Quin Wells scoring off Kristian Beachy hitting a single on a fly ball to centerfield for a 6-2 lead. 

The Warriors added a run in the top of the sixth with a run scoring on an error, then they made it a 6-4 score with a run scoring on a groundout. 

Lynchburg-Clay went from a two-run lead to an eight-run advantage as they took a 9-4 lead with Lewis scoring on an error in left field, which also allowed Wells to score a run. 

Max Baker followed with a ball hit to centerfield, scoring Beachy on a throw to the infield for a 10-4 advantage. 

The 11th run scored by the Mustangs came when Baker scored on an error, and the final run by LCHS was Roberts scoring on a double hit to centerfield by Niehaus. 

“We had a big game last night down at Manchester (LCHS won 1-0) and faced a really elite pitcher in the league, and he did a good job keeping us off-balanced all night. I kind of expected to start off a little slow tonight, but we cleaned things up and got things timed up and we rolled through the order the second time, and that is about all you can ask for,” LCHS head coach James Flowers said. 

“Aiden hit his first varsity home run tonight, so we were happy about that. We had that really tough league game against Manchester last night, and hats off to them, they played a phenomenal game down there. Hats off to Eastern tonight, they have a little bit of youth, but I promise you they will be ready to play baseball every time they hit the field. Coach Steve Goetz does a phenomenal job with those guys.”

In all, the Mustangs totaled 15 hits and two errors. EHS had six hits and six errors. 

Five Mustangs had multi-hit games with Beachy going 3-for-4 with one run and two RBI. Lewis was 2-for-4 with two runs and one RBI. Niehaus was 2-for-3 with a double, and he scored a run, with one RBI and a walk, plus he collected a steal. 

Roberts was 2-for-4 with two runs. Bene went 2-for-4 with one run, two RBI, and the aforementioned home run. Slack was 1-for-2 with an RBI. Elam Faust finished 1-for-2 with a run and a steal. Also for LCHS, Davis had a steal. 

Roberts pitched a complete game with seven innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits and no walks with 13 strikeouts. He threw 106 pitches, 80 for strikes. 

“Tanner had a complete game and got into a little trouble here and there, behind a few counts, but that was seven days in between starts,” Flowers said. “We like to take it easy on their arms, but he found it and we also expect that.”

Eastern was led by Jaidon Florence (2-for-4, one run) and Litzinger (2-for-3, two runs, two RBI, a home run, a double), plus he pitched one inning with no earned runs and two strikeouts.

BOX SCORE
EHS      200 002 0 — 4 6 6 
LCHS    000 606 x — 12 15 2 

Wednesday the Mustangs were back on the diamond, this time at Ripley, where they won in three innings by a 13-0 score as Kristian Beachy didn’t allow a hit in his three innings on the mound. He walked one and struck out nine batters in the win. 

At the plate, nine Mustang players had at least one hit with Harley Lewis finishing 2-for-3 with one run and one RBI. Beachy also had a two-hit game at 2-for-3 with two runs, a double and two RBI. 

Having one hit each were Quin Wells (1-for-2, one run, a double, one walk), Max Baker (1-for-1, two runs, one walk), Tanner Roberts (1-for-1, two runs), Aiden Bene (1-for-1, two runs, three RBI, one walk), Alex Van Fleet (1-for-1, one RBI), Trevor Niehaus (1-for-2, one run, two RBI) and Tristin Puckett (1-for-1, a double, three RBI, one walk). 

Caden Boone scored one run in the win, and Luke Davis also scored a run. Roberts (two), Davis, Baker and Niehaus were all hit by a pitch. Steals went to Beachy (three), Baker (two) and Lewis. 

LCHS is now 7-0 in the SHAC Division I standings, as they are currently in first place, and 10-2 overall. 

BOX SCORE
LCHS    841 xxx x — 13 11 0 
RHS      000 xxx x — 0 0 0