Home Notice Box Sports Clark, McKinion lead area batting races

Clark, McKinion lead area batting races

0

GREENE COUNTY — With the final week of regular season games on hand, Cedarville’s Caleb McKinion has held onto the baseball lead for the Greene County Batting Championship, sponsored by Pizza Hut, while defending softball title winner Kaley Clark of the Bellbrook Golden Eagles has once again assumed the softball lead.

For the second year, the Greene County News, and its papers the Xenia Daily Gazette, Fairborn Daily Herald, and the Beavercreek News-Current weekly, is teaming up with the Xenia Pizza Hut location (at 354 W. Main St.) to present the area batting champions with an award for their hard work during the Spring season.

Pizza Hut general manager Brandon Beatty presented our 2018 champions — Bellbrook’s Clark and Legacy Christian baseball senior Josh Rutan — with $50 Pizza Hut gift certificates last season.

The top area baseball and softball batting average champions will each receive a $50 gift certificate from Pizza Hut.

In order to recognize a batter’s consistency throughout the season, the champion must have at least twice as many at-bats as total games that his team has played during the season.

Cedarville Indians sophomore infielder-pitcher Caleb McKinion is currently leading the baseball hitting contest, and he’s the top batter in the Ohio Heritage Conference as well.

Through 20 games, McKinion has a .542 batting average (32 hits in 59 at-bats), with eight doubles, 24 runs batted in, six stolen bases and 19 runs scored. He has an on-base percentage of .600.

Other top area contenders are Xenia’s Ayden Evans (.506), Greeneview’s Braydan Dobney at .478, Yellow Springs’ Dylan Rainey (.441), Legacy Christian’s Kyle Mitchell (.435) and Carroll’s Steven Chapman (.404).

When we last did an update, Bellbrook’s Clark and Xenia’s Caity Moody were locked in a pretty close battle for the softball batting title, with Moody at a slight lead with a .629 batting average (to Clark’s .611).

Ten days later, Clark has assumed the batting lead and stands a chance at becoming the contest’s first repeat winner.

Clark is three percentage points out of the Southwestern Buckeye League batting lead. The Golden Eagles junior has played in 14 games and now has a .689 batting average. Clark has 31 hits in 45 trips to the plate, with two home runs, three triples, 11 doubles, 23 RBI, seven steals and 22 runs scored so far.

Moody is second with a .541 average, followed by Yellow Springs’ Zoe Lafferty (.537), Greeneview’s Harley Clonch (.478), Kendall Winn at Fairborn (.524), and Carroll’s Ellie Trusty (.447).

The regular season for most area high school teams will close on Friday or Saturday, May 10-11. We’ll decide our Greene County batting champions then.

Good luck to all, from the Xenia Pizza Hut and your Greene County News newspapers!

Cedarville sophomore Caleb McKinion currently leads the race for the Greene County area batting title, sponsored by the Xenia Pizza Hut, with a .542 average.
https://www.xeniagazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2019/05/web1_CalebMcKinionYOUTube_PS.jpgCedarville sophomore Caleb McKinion currently leads the race for the Greene County area batting title, sponsored by the Xenia Pizza Hut, with a .542 average. YouTube photo.

Defending softball batting champion Kaley Clark of the Bellbrook Golden Eagles is once again the Greene County batting leader this season, with a .689 average.
https://www.xeniagazette.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2019/05/web1_KaleyClark_PS.jpgDefending softball batting champion Kaley Clark of the Bellbrook Golden Eagles is once again the Greene County batting leader this season, with a .689 average. File photo.

Staff Report.