Warriors beat Bearcats, stay perfect in SVC

BAINBRIDGE – Adena pitcher JD Blevins made his first career varsity start against Paint Valley, Friday night.

But by the way he was dealing, you would've thought he had been in that same spot hundreds of times over.

Blevins (3-0) threw six innings on the bump and led his Warriors to a pivotal 4-2 win over the Bearcats — keeping Adena's perfect mark within conference play intact.

"(JD) has gained some confidence in his last couple of outings. He threw outstanding tonight," Adena coach Ron Free said. "His performance tonight just tells you what's coming in the future and we're excited about that. I'm tickled to death with him. We wanted to get five innings out of him and we got six. JD is the man."

In those six innings, the freshman southpaw gave up two earned runs, allowed just four hits and struck out nine batters.

The opposing pitcher, Mason McCloy, was no slouch either. McCloy (3-1) went the distance for the Bearcats, allowing just one earned run and striking out four Warriors. He was the tough luck loser thanks to a total of four Paint Valley' errors — three of which resulted in Adena' scores.

"Mason is an intimidating man," Free said. "But that's one thing I can say about our hitters; I've never seen us intimidated at the plate. I want to give a shout-out to our guys who laid down sacrifice bunts in (Andrew) Woods and Gunnar (Free). That's Adena baseball. We're going to sacrifice, move the runner over and get them in. We did that tonight."

The Warriors (9-1, 6-0 Scioto Valley Conference) broke a scoreless tie in the top of the third inning when Hayden Henness — who was also extremely busy in his right field spot all night long — singled to center to lead off the inning. Eli Kunkel followed with a single into right and both runners were moved over by Free on a sacrifice bunt. Collin Cory then drove in Henness with a sacrifice fly to center field, giving Adena a 1-0 lead.

The score would remain the same until the top of the sixth when Adena cashed in on two costly Paint Valley' errors.

Free reached base on an errant throw from Paint Valley's Anthony McFadden, stole second base and then advanced to third when Cory grounded out to the pitcher. Free then scored on an RBI single off the bat of Jonathan Thomas, to make it 2-0.

Braden Wilburn then hit a lazy fly ball into center field that hit Jonathon Henson's glove first and the outfield grass second. Thomas, who advanced to third base on the error, came around to score later in the inning when Woods grounded out to the pitcher, giving the Warriors a 3-0 lead.

Paint Valley (8-2, 4-2 SVC) was down but far from out.

The Bearcats would answer with two runs of their own in the bottom half of the sixth. Drake Stanforth led the inning off with a single into right field and proceeded to score when Teagan McFadden drove a ball over Thomas' head in center, logging an RBI double and cutting the lead back to two, 3-1.

After advancing to third, McFadden would score on a passed ball, making it 3-2.

"I'm proud of my kids for not quitting tonight," said Paint Valley coach Shayne Combs. "Obviously we have to better defensively. You can't give a team as good as Adena three unearned runs. But my guys never quit and I am confident we can correct mistakes and move forward."

The Warriors would add an insurance run in the seventh via an error on Bearcats' third baseman Josh Krech, plating Kunkel and rounding out the final score.

Cory pitched the bottom half of the seventh for the Warriors and retired the Bearcats' 8-9-1 hitters in order.

Offensively, Kunkel led Adena at the plate going 2-4 with a run scored. Thomas, Cory and Woods all logged and RBI each.

For Paint Valley, McFadden finished 1-3 with a double and the RBI while Stanforth, Skylar Knisley and Clay Archer all had a hit each.

Both clubs will be back in action Monday as Adena travels to Piketon and Paint Valley hosts Huntington.

dwebb@chillicothegazette.com

Twitter: @dw1509