XENIA — Thursday night’s matchup at Grady’s Field between the Xenia Scouts and the Southern Ohio Copperheads was a Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League heavyweight battle in the making.
The Scouts came into the night 5-1 with a hot hitting streak. The Southern Ohio Copperheads were an undefeated 4-0 and stood in first place in the league.
Xenia came out on top, beating the undefeated Copperheads 6-1.
The Scouts got off to a hot start defensively, shutting down the Copperheads to get out of the top of the first inning with no hits and no runs.
Then the monsoon struck.
A burst of rain came through to delay the game for 20 minutes. Players passed the time by tossing a baseball from dugout to dugout. Just when the cups started getting stacked, the rain stopped and play resumed.
The rain didn’t seem to affect Xenia.
The Scouts scored a run in both the bottom of the first and second innings. Sinclair pitcher John Crawford helped keep Xenia ahead. He didn’t allow a hit from the Copperheads for the first three innings.
A big burst of scoring came for Xenia in its half of the sixth inning. Christian Binger started the inning with a double to left field. Zach Wylie then hit a single but it only advanced Binger to third. Miles Wright batted in the first run of the inning, hitting a single to score Binger. Levi Gilcrease then hit a line drive over the short stop to bring home Wylie and Wright. Washburn University’s Kyle Carnahan hit a ball towards the third base line and was thrown out, but he scored Gilcrease for the final Scouts run.
Southern Ohio (4-1) scored a single run in the top of the ninth, but the Scouts (6-1) kept it at that to move to first place in the league.
The Scouts now go to play the Copperheads on the road. They play at 7:30 p.m. today at Bob Wren Stadium in Athens. Xenia then goes to Cincinnati to play the Steam at 7:05 p.m. Saturday at Max McLeary Field before returning home Sunday to host the Steam at 4:05 p.m.
