WEST ALEXANDRIA — Twin Valley South baseball is off to a 4-1 start this season after a dominating win over Tri-County North (1-1) and a split with Preble Shawnee (2-3) this week.
After South’s Opening Day doubleheader sweep over Dixie, the Panthers returned to the mound against North on Tuesday, March 30, in a 13-0 win in five innings.
Gage Miller led the South Panthers on the mound, pitching five shutout innings while only allowing three hits and striking out eight.
South’s dominating win was highlighted by Kasey Blair’s two-run homer in the third inning as well as a two-run RBI double from Mikey Crews in the third.
“We did a good job of coming out and jumping on them early,” South coach Cory Bassler said. “I thought we left some runs out there but, for the most part, we executed when we needed to.”
Grant Ulrich led South at the plate, going 2-for-3 with two RBIs and four runs. Blair finished 1-for-3 with the aforementioned home run and three RBIs.
Beyond his work on the mound, Miller went 1-for-1 with three walks, three runs and an RBI.
“Once again, Gage did his job on the mound of pounding the strike zone and not giving them anything easy,” Bassler said. “Proud of our guys for the all around effort.”
North baseball is scheduled to play at Middletown Christian on Monday, April 5, at Bradford on Tuesday, April 6, at home against Franklin Monroe on Thursday, April 8, at Milton-Union on Saturday, April 10, and against Eaton at Day Air Ballpark (formerly Fifth Third Field) on Sunday, April 11.
Later in the week, Twin Valley South split a home doubleheader with Preble Shawnee taking game one 11-1 before falling 16-14 in game two.
In the first game, Miller threw another complete game, allowing just one run on three hits, no walks and seven strikeouts. Levi Gearhart, Blair and Crews all finished 2-for-3 as Crews doubled and tripled.
South was scheduled to play at Arcanum on Tuesday, April 6, and will face Bradford at home on Thursday, April 8 before a home matchup with Stivers on Saturday, April 10.
Earlier in the week, Preble Shawnee picked up a 7-5 win over Madison to begin league play for the Arrows.
Tied 5-5 in the top of the seventh, Zane Adams brought in two runs for the Arrows to go ahead 7-5, and Madison left bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh as Preble Shawnee pulled out the win.
Shawnee was scheduled to play Milton-Union and East Clinton on Monday and Tuesday, respectively, and will play at Waynesville on Wednesday, at Bradford on Thursday and home against Northridge on Friday.
