By Chris Rutz

CINCINNATI, OH- The Mason Comets topped the Troy Trojans 5-0 after a dominant performance from their ace right hander and North Carolina commit Rodney Hutchison (No. 6 ranked prospect).

Hutchison threw seven strong innings against Troy’s senior right hander and Bowling Green commit, Zach Kendall (No. 45 ranked prospect), to keep the Troy offense at bay and advance the Comets another step closer to Columbus.

In the top of the first inning, Hutchison stranded a runner on second after recording back-to-back strikeouts to bring Mason up to the plate.

Troy’s starter, Zach Kendall, sat Mason down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first. Kendall induced two fly-outs and notched his first strikeout of the game.

A great diving play by Kent State commit, Chris Martin (No. 12 ranked prospect) on a ball into shallow center kept Troy off the bases once again in the bottom of the second.

In the bottom of the second inning, Hutchison helped himself as he lead the inning off with a walk. Junior infielder, Tyler Krabbe then shot a line drive up the middle to continue the Mason rally. A passed ball moved both runners to second and third. However, the runners were stranded after Kendall got a jam job pop up to the first basemen.

Hutchison breezed through the top of the third inning working all of pitches on both sides of the plate to strike out the side. His tailing fastball, that sat at 87-89 mph, continued to get in on the hands of the Troy hitters as he combined that with his fading changeup.

The bottom of the third inning provided all five of the game’s runs after Mason capitalized on a few of Troy’s errors and some timely hitting. 

After an error and a sacrifice bunt, senior outfielder, TJ Dunn drove in the game’s first run on a double off the wall. Junior first basemen, Andy Marzheuse followed with a RBI single into the hole that was misplayed allowing Marzheuser to advance to second.

Hutchison singled and junior, Tyler Krabbe reached base on an error to load the bases. A hit batsmen and senior, Tyler Thamann’s RBI double down the line scored two more Mason runs leading to a Troy pitching change.

Senior right hander, Ben Langdown took the mound with hopes of ending the Mason rally. He eventually pitched out of the one out jam, but not before Mason scored the fifth and final run on senior Connor Bryan’s RBI infield single.

In the top of the fifth inning, Troy finally posed an offensive threat as they broke up Hutchison’s no hit bid.

Back-to-back singles by junior Ryan Lavy and senior Ryan Magoteaux led off the inning. A sacrifice bunt moved the runners over to second and third while a groundball to third led to a play at the plate resulting in the second out of the inning.

Hutchison ended the threat after getting a lazy fly ball to right field on another well located changeup.

Langdon held Mason scoreless in the bottom half of the fifth with some help on a great diving play by Junior, Zach Thompson. Troy entered the final two frames still trailing 5-0 with hopes of chipping away at the Mason lead.

The sixth inning saw another scoreless frame as both teams were only able to get lone singles. Mason took a commanding 5-0 lead into the seventh inning only needing three more outs.

Troy was unable to spark any late inning magic and fell 5-0.

Mason has a tough road to Columbus ahead of them as they play the number three ranked team and returning state champ, Moeller on Saturday.

Linescore

 

Troy      000  000  0  -  0

Mason   000 500  x  -  5

Winning Pitcher: ’15 Rodney Hutchison- 7 IP ,0 ER, 4 hits, 8 strikeouts.

Losing Pitcher- ’14 Zach Kendall- 2.1 IP, 5 ER, 6 hits, 2 strikeouts.

GAME TWO

By Chris Rutz

CINCINNATI, OH- The second of the two Cincinnati regional games pit the returning state champion and the third ranked team in the state, Moeller Crusaders, against a talented Beavercreek squad (ranked 27th) with hopes of preventing back-to-back state championships for Moeller.

Two very talented left handed arms were on display in a pitcher’s duel that ended in a 3-0 Moeller victory, Moeller’s senior and Kentucky commit, Zach Logue (No.9 ranked prospect) faced off against Beavercreek’s talented young sophomore Jackson Tedder.

The first inning flew by as both pitchers showcased why they are so highly touted as they sat their opposition down in order.

Logue repeated his first inning success with another perfect inning in the second.

Moeller jumped to an early lead in the bottom of the second after junior Bryan Soth (No. 132 ranked prospect) led off with a walk followed by a bunt single by sophomore, Kyle Butz. 

Soth was driven in by fellow junior, Joe Vranesic (No. 11 ranked prospect) on a RBI double off of a Tedder changeup that was left high in the zone. 

Tedder pitched out of a jam with runners at first and second with a healthy dose of backdoor curveballs to  bring Beavercreek back up to the plate.

Neither team was able to push anything across in the third inning. Beavercreek was unable to answer in the top half after Logue surrendered just a leadoff walk.

Kentucky commit, Riley Mahan (No. 4 ranked prospect), started  the bottom half of the inning with a double down the line. He eventually was thrown out attempting to score after a deadly Tedder pickoff move leaving a runner in a pickle giving Mahan the green light for the plate.

Both lefthanders found their rhythm and kept the game scoreless until the bottom of the sixth inning when Moeller added on an insurance run. 

A Kyle Butz leadoff walk and stolen base would be just the RBI opportunity that junior Kyle Dockus (no.78 ranked prospect) needed. Dockus drove an inside fastball into right field and stretched the Moeller lead to 3-0 with just three more outs to go.

Beavercreek was unable to shake Logue, as he finished what he started and recorded the final three outs.

Logue’s shutout gives Moeller a shot at at returning to Columbus but a colossal match-up against the number three ranked, Mason Comets will crown a Cincinnati Regional champion.

Linescore

Moeller             0200001   3

Beavercreek    0000000    0

Winning Pitcher- ’14 Logue- 7 IP, 0 ER, 3 hits, 7 strikeouts

Losing Pitcher- ’16 Tedder- 6 IP, 3 ER, 6 hits, 3 strikeouts