THE PLAINS — Beating a divisional rival twice in a season is hard enough, it’s not often that you get the opportunity to complete a three-game sweep on the year. For an Athens team that ran rampant through the Tri-Valley Conference-Ohio this year, it was just another day on the diamond.
Behind a complete game effort from Noah Sincoff on the mound and some nifty defense behind him, the Bulldogs were able to smother Meigs en route to a 7-1 victory in the Sectional championship game at home on Wednesday afternoon.
“Our bats were a little slow tonight but defensively we were sound and that’s what we keep stressing,” Todd Nuzum, the head coach of Athens said following the win. “Just throw strikes and field the routine baseball.”
The stats tell one story with Sincoff, a dominant performance on the bump where the junior tossed all seven innings, allowing six hits and no earned runs, striking out 14 while allowing three walks. From the eye-test, the righty did so much more than that.
Seeing runners on base at some point in nearly every inning, Sincoff would find himself in a stressful situation before continuously being able to settle down and get out of the threat.
“We were really contemplating whether to go with him another inning and he had that mindset that he wanted to finish the game so we said ‘Alright, here you go,’” Nuzum noted about the starter. “He dogged it there and toughed it out.”
At the plate, Brady Wharton drove most of Athens’ offense with a 2-3 day at the plate, smacking a home run while grabbing a game-high four RBIs and two runs scored. Dawson Kennedy also grabbed a hit and an RBI. Landon Baker would score a pair of runs on one hit while David Sharp and Justin Bennett each grabbed a hit and a run.
Ryan Cornwell would grab the only other hit for the Bulldogs while also making a potentially game-saving play in the outfield late in the contest.
For the Marauders, Ashton Newsome would get the start but clearly didn’t have anything going. The righty would only toss 14 pitches, 12 of them being balls as he loaded the bases up without any outs in the first before being pulled. Mason Qualls would take over from there, pitching the rest of the afternoon while allowing seven hits, three earned runs, striking out four while allowing one free base.
At the plate, Braden Hawley would lead the way for Meigs with a 3-4 day at the plate. Hunter Smith, Jake Martin and Brodie Fackler would all grab a hit while Brice Butcher scored the team’s lone run.
For what would become an easy win by the end of the night, the signs were not very fruitful for Athens in the opening moments of the matchup. After Hawley was able to reach second base, Qualls would pop up an infield fly with two outs but the ball would drop, allowing the first run of the game to come in as the Marauders took an early lead.
Athens wouldn’t have to do much though to get back into this one, really the team wouldn’t have to do anything. After the first three batters reached base via walk, Bennett would scamper home with the game-tying run on a passed ball.
A couple of batters later, Wharton would go with an outside pitch, slicing one into the right-center gap to bring in a pair and give Athens a lead the team would never relinquish. He would later score on a wild pitch to give the Bulldogs a 4-1 lead after one inning of play.
Meigs would get one on in each of the next two innings before Athens went back to work packing the scoreboard.
In the bottom of the third, a hit-and-run would be called for Kennedy at the plate with the first baseman lining one directly through the now-empty shortstop hole. Baker would make it to third before a miscue from the Marauder’s left fielder allowed him to come home.
Holding a comfortable, but not confident lead on the board, Sincoff and Athens would face its true test of the afternoon in the fifth. After three consecutive singles gave Meigs the bases loaded with just one out, the righty would settle in to grab a massive strikeout before arguably Athens’ biggest play of the season was made.
With the bases loaded, the Marauder’s batter would rip a shot into the right-center gap that would’ve almost guaranteed a tie game on the scoreboard. Cornwell would shoot over from right field to make a running, extended catch to end the inning and preserve the lead.
“That’s a huge play right there, that gets behind him and it’s probably a tie game… big time play.”
Wharton would come up massive once again for Athens in the bottom of the frame, ripping a two-out, two-run shot over the left field fence to extend the lead to six.
Sincoff would then work out of trouble once again in the sixth before settling down for a 1-2-3 inning in the seventh to secure the victory, sending Athens to the District stage.
The Bulldogs next hit the diamond for another rematch, this time at Bob Wren Stadium on Ohio University’s campus. Set to be played on May 20 with a 6 p.m. first pitch, Athens is slated to go up against Jackson in the District semifinals. The Bulldogs fell to the Ironmen 7-1 a little under a month ago but took a one-run game into the fifth inning before ultimately falling.
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