XENIA, Ohio – Tommy Kister struck out the side in the ninth inning to close the door on the Cincinnati Steam, giving the Xenia Scouts a 5-4 victory Thursday night at Grady’s Field.
Kister, who attends The Masters College, collected his sixth save of the summer as he went four innings with four hits, a walk and five strikeouts. Kister came on in the sixth after Xenia reliever Mike Roe failed to record an out as Cincinnati (20-14) scored four runs to cut the lead to 5-4.
The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the fourth when Taylor Kaprive blasted a three-run home run that was just inside the left-field foul pole, scoring Shane Street and Matt Thompson in the process. The home run was Kaprive’s second of the summer.
Thompson nearly missed driving in the game’s first run when his line drive shot to right-center bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double forcing Street to stop at third.
The Scouts would tack on two more in the bottom of the fifth when Andrew Geenen sent a shot through a drown-in infield to score Tyler Hamby and Matt Calhoun on the play for what would prove to be the game-winning play.
Xenia starting pitcher Adam Westbrook (2-1) pitched marvelously through his five innings of work. Westbrook gave up just two hits to go with a pair of walks and five strikeouts.
Andrew Swart (2-4) started for the Steam and went just 4 1/3 innings with five earned runs on nine hits to go along with six strikeouts.
Xenia will now turn to play the Southern Ohio Copperheads on Friday night at Grady’s Field in a battle for first place in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League’s South Division. First pitch is slated for 7 p.m.
(Photo courtesy of Steve Frazier.)
