Bulldogs Outlast Spartans
By: Joseph Payton
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ATHENS, Ohio — On Tuesday night, the Athens Bulldogs and the Alexander Spartans met up for a TVC-Ohio baseball showdown. With two hard-throwing pitchers on the mound in Chace Harris and Waylon Bradbury, runs were hard to come by. But the Athens Bulldogs came out victorious over the Spartans four-to-two.
The offensive action started in the top of the second inning when Alexander second baseman Mason Hanning singled to right field to knock in Jordan Coburn as the Spartans took an early one-to-nothing lead. But Athens fired right back in the bottom half of the inning. Andy Kostival hit a hard ground ball to the third basemen who misplayed it, allowing two runs to score as the Bulldogs took their first lead of the game two-to-one.
The Spartans bounced back to tie 2-2 in the top of the 5th as a ground ball to the right side of the infield allowed the runner from third base to score. But once again Athens immediately responded in the bottom half of the 5th inning. Second baseman Brendan Sano doubled to left field to start the inning and then catcher Brock Stewart knocked him in with a line-drive single to left field. Stewart tried to stretch it into a double but was thrown out. The very next batter, designated hitter Brody Rogers, blasted a monster homerun over the left-center field wall to extend the Athens lead four-to-two.
The Spartans had no offensive answer after that, and the Bulldogs went on to win four-to-two. After the game, Athens head coach Chris Stewart said he was pleased with the way his team played, and credited Bradbury for the win through his work on the mound.
“We’ve really put him in a position where we’re counting on him on the mound this year and he has been tremendous,” Stewart said. “He is now 4-0 in conference play and 5-0 overall and he really didn’t want me to take him out of the game at the end. That is the kind of competitive attitude I like to see.”
With the win, the Bulldogs improve to 11-1 on the season as they sit at the top spot in the TVC-Ohio. They now travel to play the Nelsonville-York Buckeyes, who are in 2nd place in the TVC-Ohio, on Wednesday night at 5:00pm.