AMELIA — Blanchester survived a seventh inning scare Monday and defeated Reading 5-3 at the Midland Baseball Complex.
The Wildcats (1-0) led 5-1 going to the seventh but the Blue Devils loaded the bases with one out but Cole Mueller struck out the final batter, stranding two runners.
“What a great team victory, against a very respectable Reading team,” BHS manager Aaron Lawson said. “Pitching and defense looked great. We pitched from in front and had that 9 versus 1 attitude. We throw so many strikes when we don’t try to strike everyone out.
“Defense made all 16 plays behind our pitchers. We have really been stressing focus on making the routine plays.”
Sammy Roush pitched three scoreless innings to start the game for Blanchester. Dreyden Dees went three innings to get the win before giving way to Mueller.
Austin Dick collected three hits, including a triple, stole two bases, and drove in three runs.
Roush had two hits and stole three bases. Blanchester had nine stolen bases in all. Dees had two hits, a stolen base and two RBI. Bryce Sipple scored twice and had a hit.
Collin Elston and Caleb Sears both had hits with Sears scoring a run and stealing a base.
“Aggressive (hitting) early in the count and had some great two-strike approaches that extended the at-bat,” Lawson said. “Very proud of the way we played. Need to roll this over into a very important league game Wednesday.”
