KINDA CLEVELAND — Playing in the old Municipal Stadium, home of the Cleveland Indians, there was no signs of Willie Mays Hayes or Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn but Monday’s simulated high school game between the Greeneview Rams and Xenia Buccaneers was just as crazy.
Down 0-6 at one point, Greeneview tied the game up with six runs in its top half of the ninth inning, then eked out a 9-7 win over Xenia in 13 innings.
Through those first eight innings of play, Xenia appeared to be in control. The Bucs had sent 10 batters to the plate in the opening inning of play, with Joey Lewis, Blayne Dudley and Alex Sparks each scoring on RBIs by Dudley, Kyle Lane and Warren Mahar.
The Bucs tacked on three more runs in the eighth on a Lewis three-run home run that bounced onto and over the right-field wall, scoring himself, Lane and Devin Hall, for a commanding 6-0 lead.
Xenia starting pitcher Mahar had kept the Rams scoreless through eight innings of pitching, with just six hits and a whopping nine strikeouts, but his endurance had gave out for the nine and a reliever took to the mound.
Four hits and four Greeneview walks later, Greeneview had miraculously tied the contest at 6-6 through nine innings of play.
Taylor Stinson, Hunter Anderson, Josh Robinson, Zack Hackney, Ian Tamplin and Jack Nix each scored in the inning to give the Rams new life.
Both Greene County area teams failed to score in the 10th and 11th innings, but then both scored in the 12th.
First, Greeneview grabbed the lead when Anderson singled home Evans, who scored just ahead of the throw from right field.
Then, Xenia responded with Dylan Hall’s lead-off triple in the 12th. Mahar then launched a deep fly ball to left to score Hall on a sacrifice fly.
Greeneview then took the lead for good in the 13th.
Tamplin led off with a walk, then advanced on a Nix base on balls. Dobney then singled to center, sending Nix to third and scoring Tamplin from second base. Evans then hit a sac fly to left field to score Nix with an insurance run.
Xenia’s Lewis began the bottom of the 13th with a lead-off triple to right center, but reliever Anderson fanned the next two Buc batters and got the final out on a line drive to third.
TRIPLE PLAY: The Rams also pulled off the second Triple Play in Bombatch dice rolling baseball history in Monday’s game. Xenia had Sparks and Dylan Hall on second and first respectively. The next Buc batter hit a liner to third baseman Evans, who then tagged out Sparks at second and caught Hall before he could get back to first for the triple play.
NEXT GAME: It’s softball’s turn for Week 3 action. Up next is Xenia against Legacy Christian. Send your suggestions for game venues to [email protected], or John will fly the teams out to Yankee Stadium.
