XENIA, Ohio – For the second consecutive night, the Southern Ohio Copperheads have taken advantage of less than stellar by the Xenia Scouts to take a six-run victory. Southern Ohio defeated Xenia 10-4 on Monday and 12-6 on Tuesday.
Tuesday’s action started with Southern Ohio taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the first before the Scouts gained their only lead of the night.
Eddie Young led off the bottom of the first with a walk and scored when Caleb Palensky tagged a shot to right-center for his first triple of the summer.
Andrew Geenen then lined the first pitch he saw to centerfield for a single that would bring home Palensky. Geenen would later score when he stole third and the catcher’s throw went into the outfield.
The lead would not last long as the Copperheads put up a three-spot of their own in the second.
With one out and runners on the corners, Austin Haney grounded a ball to Taylor Kaprive, who then threw the ball over Matt Thompson’s head at first allowing two runs to score. On the same play, Thompson tried to gun down Haney as he advanced to third, but Thompson’s throw, too, was wild allowing Haney to score to give Southern Ohio a 4-3 lead.
The early see-saw affair saw Xenia (20-17) respond in their half of the second when Colin Starr, who had reached on a hit-by-pitch and moved to second on a balk, would cross the plate when Ben Christian doubled the left to draw even at 4-4.
Southern Ohio (26-12) then scored a run in the fourth and three more in the fifth to take an 8-4 lead.
Xenia would draw as close to 8-6 on single runs in the fifth and sixth innings, but Southern Ohio would put things away three in the seventh and one in the eighth for the final margin.
The game wasn’t pretty for either team and both Southern Ohio and Xenia had more runs than hits and they combined for eight errors on the night.
Xenia, who is 5.5 games out of first, now drops to fourth place in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League South Division standings after Hamilton swept a doubleheader from Cincinnati.
The Scouts will look to break their three-game losing streak on Wednesday night as they host the Hamilton Joes at Grady’s Field. First pitch is slated for 7 p.m.
(Photo courtesy of Steve Frazier.)
