By Matthew Lee
Regional Correspondent

In a battle of state ranked teams, No. 3 (DII) Lexington (16-2) and No. 14 (DIII) Fredericktown (17-5) squared off on Saturday morning. Each team featured explosive offensive lineups highlighted by Oakland recruit Zach Sterry and Western Carolina recruit Matt Smith.

These teams know each other well, and it isn’t because they play often. In fact, the schools haven’t faced each other in several years.

Instead, 15 players were former teammates as they rose through the ranks in the Mid-Ohio Blaze travel baseball organization .

On this occasion, Lexington sent sophomore RHP Evan Lee to the mound while the Freddies countered with senior RHP Nash Cunningham (Ashland recruit).

The Minutemen struck in the first inning off of Cunningham.

Senior Mason Willeke (Heidelberg recruit) led off the game with a single up the middle. Sterry and Logan Bastin (Capital recruit) followed with singles of their own to load the bases. Then, Lee drove a ball to deep center, but Matt Smith tracked the ball down at the fence in center limiting Lee to a sacrifice fly.

In the second inning, Lexington again loaded the bases on singles by junior Nate Arnholt and Willeke while Sterry drew a walk. Bastin delivered his second hit of the game to score two runs. An errant throw to third base allowed Sterry to score and put Lexington up 4-0.

Senior Ryan Logan came into pitch in the third inning for Fredericktown. He pitched the last four innings, only giving up a run scoring double off the bat of Lee in the fifth inning.

Meanwhile, Lee was cruising as he retired the first 10 batters that he faced.

He escaped trouble in the fourth as he issued two walks and a single to sophomore Tyler Ruhl to load the bases but was able to get Logan to fly out to right to end the threat.

Fredericktown finally got on the board in the sixth. Smith led off with a double to left center. Ruhl singled and freshman Kirk Manns followed that with a single to make it a 5-1 game. Lee was able to strike out the next two hitters but junior Caleb Phillips hit a fly ball to left that was misplayed and Ruhl scored to make it 5-2. Lee then struck out Thompson to end the inning. 

Junior Zach Temple pitched a perfect frame in the 7^th to pick up the save as Lexington improved to 17-2 while Fredericktown fell to 17-6. 

To view scouting notes from games across Ohio, please visit the Ohio High School Scouting Blog. The blog gets updated throughout the week. 

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