Paint Valley Wins D-4 District Baseball Championship Among Monday Area Games

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The (15-12) Paint Valley Bearcats showed how their tough SVC regular season can payoff in post-season play, beating higher seeded (17-6-1) Eastern Meigs 9-8 for the Division 4 District Baseball Championship at V.A. Memorial Stadium, Monday night.

The Bearcats fell behind 5-0, but rallied with 6 unanswered runs for a 6-5 lead. The Eagles tied it 6-6 in the sixth inning, before Paint Valley surged ahead with 3 runs in the bottom of the sixth for a 9-6 advantage.

Eastern Meigs in their final at-bat, made a comeback effort with two runs to make it 9-8, but a diving catch by Blaine Parker on a low line drive to right ended the game to hand PV the title.

In their come from behind effort, Brock Blanton drew a bases loaded walk to give the Bearcats their first lead of the game at 6-5, then after the Eagles tied the score at 6-6, it was Connor Free’s RBI hit that gave them the lead at 7-6, and what turned out to be the much-needed insurance runs coming around on a two-run single by Beau Blankenship making it 9-6.

That proved to be critical, after Eastern Meigs scored twice in the top of the 7th and had the tying run in scoring position when Parker’s diving catch ended the game.

Dax Estep got the win, working 4 innings, yielding 3 hits, and fanning 5.

At the plate, Paint Valley was led by Conor Free and Beau Blankenship- each with two hits, with Free driving in 4 runs.

The official line score for the Bearcats was 9 runs, 9 hits and committed 3 errors, while Eastern Meigs had 8 runs, 7 hits and had 4 costly errors.

Paint Valley now advances to the Division 4 Regional Semis at Lancaster’s Beaver Field vs Lucasville Valley on June 3rd at 2pm.

(18-11) Lucasville Valley advanced out of the Chillicothe #2 District with a 7-1 win over (14-13) Huntington, earlier in the day Monday.

The Indian’s George Arnett picked up the win on the mound, yielding only 6 Huntsmen hits to go along with assistance from Huntington, who struggled in the field with 6 errors in the game.

Valley score a run in the first, then the flood gates opened in the third inning when they added 6 more tallies for a 7-0 advantage.

Huntington’s lone run came in the fourth inning.

The Huntsmen see their season end with a (14-13) record.

Elsewhere in district baseball action:

(Division 3)

Minford beat Adena 11-1 in 5 innings and Meigs beat River Valley 7-2. Meigs will face Minford Wednesday in the district finals at V.A. Memorial Stadium at 3pm.

Wheelersburg topped Portsmouth 5-2, while Eastern Brown rallied from a 2-0 deficit to beat Piketon 6-2. Wheelersburg will play Eastern Brown in the 6pm district final, Wednesday at VA.

(Division 2)

The Unioto Shermans avenged a 9-3 loss at Miami Trace more than a week ago, this time in the district semis, 6-1. The victory places the Shermans up against Hillsboro in the Division 2 District Final Tuesday at 5pm at V.A. Memorial Stadium, with the winner headed to The Sweet 16.

Hillsboro advanced with a 2-0 win over Sheridan.