High School Baseball: Power rankings for Chillicothe-area teams after week four of season

CHILLICOTHE — As the weather takes a turn for the better, the high school baseball season has crossed the midpoint of its regular season.

But with the sun coming out and staying out, area teams are taking full advantage of the weather. Another week of baseball means another week of shakeups in the standings. Zane Trace still stands undefeated in the Scioto Valley Conference. Chillicothe has won two in a row, and Huntington has extended its own winning streak to five games.

With another week of baseball under wraps, it's time to see how area teams stack up against one another. Here are power rankings for all 10 area teams following another week of action:

High School Baseball: Power rankings for Chillicothe-area teams after third week of action

Weekly Takeaways: What we learned, takeaways from this past week in high school baseball and softball

10. Westfall Mustangs (3-6, 1-5 Scioto Valley Conference)

Give the Mustangs credit, they made Huntington work for a win on Wednesday. Three of their batters had at least three hits in the loss, and Jaden Towler knocked in his first home run of the year. After four games of being held to a run or less, Wednesday was a decent pick up, in spite of the result. It has upcoming conference matchups with Piketon and Paint Valley, and in there lies a chance to climb up the standings.

9. Piketon Redstreaks (5-8, 1-5 SVC)

Although a potential win passed Piketon during its loss to Paint Valley on Monday, it's been able to split the past week with solid wins over Western and Northwest. Malik Diack and Brent McGuire both put up good performances in both wins, and Garrett Legg has anchored the lineup with some timely power-hitting.

8. Chillicothe Cavaliers (5-7, 3-3 Frontier Athletic Conference)

After a four-game losing streak through early April, the Cavaliers seem to have picked themselves up. They have two wins in a row under their belts, including a comeback win over Washington thanks to a two-run walkoff double from Trent Wade. Another win over Logan on Wednesday has gotten the Cavaliers out of their slump. A home-and-home series with McClain next week might provide another boost.

7. Paint Valley Bearcats (7-7, 2-5 SVC)

John Free has lived up to his billing for the Bearcats this season. He's amassed 18 strikeouts through his latest two starts, as well as two earned runs. It stings, however, that one of those performances came during the Bearcats' extra-innings loss to Southeastern. At least the win over Piketon offered a bit of reprieve through the Bearcats' arduous mid-April run.

6. Adena Warriors (5-7, 2-4 SVC)

If there's any team in the area that went the extra mile over the weekend, it was Adena. A combined 41 runs with Worthington Kilbourne, a Division I program, is impressive in and of itself. Sure, Adena didn't win, but it put on a heck of a performance that game. Although it might have burned itself out since it was held to four runs over its next two games.

5. Southeastern Panthers (8-5, 4-3 SVC)

No-hitters seem to be flying high frequency around the SVC this week. As the Panthers swept Paint Valley in a Wednesday doubleheader, Carson McWhorter and Coleton Baxter combined for a no-hitter through five innings. Both wins add on to a 12-2 blowout of Vinton County over the weekend, one that let the Panthers flex their muscles a bit.

4. Waverly Tigers (8-5, 2-3 Southern Ohio Conference III)

Never mind the tough losses from last week. Waverly has three big wins over South Webster, Circleville and Portsmouth West to its name. Tyler Malone continues to do what he does best on the mound, all the while the lineup is prone to breaking out on any given night. Ben Nichols, Jase Hurd and Hunter Hauck have all come up big at the plate this week, and it's paid off for Waverly in all three games.

3. Huntington Huntsmen (8-3, 4-2 SVC)

In spite of a close call against Westfall on Wednesday, Huntington has bounced back from its loss against Zane Trace to go on a five-game winning streak. Only one of its opponents since then has scored more than one run — Westfall scored nine. Brayden Elliott has also caught fire for the Huntsmen through that span. Elliott threw a one-hitter against Symmes Valley on Saturday, and he's gone 3-for-5 with a pair of extra-base hits and seven RBIs in his past two games.

2. Unioto Shermans (9-2, 5-2 SVC)

It has been a very good week for Unioto's rotation. On Monday, Ashton Crace tossed a no-hitter with 10 strikeouts against Adena, and then KB Perkins and Jaxon Zickafoose combined for a perfect game against Paint Valley the next day. Both of those follow a stellar performance on the mound from Dylan Grubbs in a 6-5 win over Jackson last Saturday. All three wins fit into Unioto's recent win streak nicely, especially with the season past its midpoint.

1. Zane Trace Pioneers (12-1, 7-0 SVC)

No surprise, the Pioneers are still on top. Teams are hard to beat when they have one of the most productive offenses in the area and a rotation of dependable pitchers. The Pioneers have both in spades and have used both to great effect. Over their last three games — wins over Westfall, Piketon and Adena — they've posted a scoring margin of 30-4.

This article originally appeared on Chillicothe Gazette: High School Baseball: Week four power rankings for Chillicothe-area teams