Early runs lift Red Devils to win
The Owensboro High School baseball team scored five runs in the opening frame and never looked back on the way to taking an 8-4 win over Meade County on Monday at Shifley Park’s Jack Hicks Field.
The victory was the fourth in a row for the Red Devils (15-10).
“We’re trying to increase our efficiency with runners in scoring position with less than two outs, and we were pretty good with that,” said OHS head coach Jake Fiorella. “This was the second game in a row where we’ve had bases loaded with no outs and we’ve ended with two or more runs, which is great. You’d like to have more, but you certainly don’t want to get out with a zero.”
OHS loaded the bases in the bottom of the first after Evan Hampton was hit by a pitch, Lake Wilson singled to right field and Caden Ray drew a walk. Ty Ashley was hit by a pitch to give OHS a 1-0 edge. Two batters later, Brady Benjamin drilled a bases-clearing double to right field before scoring on Trevor DeLacey’s RBI double to left — putting the Red Devils up 5-0.
Meade County (17-16) trimmed into its deficit with a trio of scores in the top of the third inning, powered by an RBI base hit by Jeffrey Johnson and a two-run double from Aidan Bratcher. However, Owensboro forced an inning-ending double play to preserve a two-run lead.
The Red Devils added two more scores in the bottom of the third after loading the bases again with no outs. Hampton’s sacrifice fly scored Benjamin, who drew a leadoff walk, and DeLacey scored on a passed ball for a 7-3 advantage.
“When we give up a run, we want to answer — that’s our goal,” Fiorella said. “We don’t need to equal it, we just want to answer like, ‘Hey, we’re not going anywhere tonight,’ and our guys did a good job of that tonight. They scored those three runs and we put up two, just to get our lead a little bit bigger.
“I feel like we did a good job minimizing damage tonight. They got some guys on base early with no outs or one out, and we did a good job of keeping them on the bases and not letting them score.”
The Green Wave notched their last run in the fifth when Austinm Stansbury reached safely with an error, advanced to second on Johnson’s single and scored on Josiah Pierce’s RBI grounder to left field.
Owensboro capped off scoring in the bottom of the sixth on Ashley’s RBI line drive to center field.
For the game, Benjamin produced three RBIs and two runs for the Red Devils, Ashley went 2-for-3 with two RBIs and a run, DeLacey added two hits with a run and an RBI, Will Rickard and Wilson tallied two hits apiece, and Hampton scored twice.
Johnson and Pierce finished with two hits each for Meade County, and Stansbury scored two runs.
OHS plays again Tuesday when it hosts South Warren at Shifley Park.
MEADE COUNTY 003 010 0 — 4 8 0
OWENSBORO 502 001 x — 8 10 1
WP-DeLacey. LP-Stansbury. 2B-Benjamin, DeLacey (O), Bratcher (M).
