LEES CREEK – Tristan Burkitt’s squeeze bunt with Matthew Hall on third in the seventh inning plated the winning run as East Clinton defeated Blanchester 6-5 Wednesday in a SBAAC National Division game.
Burkitt’s run batted in was the third of the inning for the Astros who rallied from a 5-3 deficit.
“I’m glad to see some fight through adversity,” EC coach Brian Carey said.
East Clinton took advantage of a walk, error and hit by pitch to load the bases with no outs in the seventh. A Blanchester throwing error allowed Zach Mitchell and Isaiah Curtis to score to tie the game, 5-5. That set the stage for Burkitt’s bunt.
Blanchester falls to 2-3 overall, 2-2 in the National Division.
“We played a solid game on both sides of the lines (other than) the bottom of the seventh,” BHS coach Aaron Lawson said. “We need to slam the door once we grab the lead. I commend our guys for never giving up. Unfortunately, we had two very costly errors in the seventh.”
East Clinton is now 1-6 overall, 1-2 in conference play.
Reagan Burch drove in a pair of runs for Blanchester. Orin Potts and Andrew Frump had two hits each.
Zach Mitchell had two hits and scored a pair of runs for EC. Hall had two RBI and scored twice. Matthew Mitchell also collected two hits.
On the mound, Caden Stewart picked up the win in relief for East Clinton.
“Our pitchers threw a great game and kept the Blanchester batters at bay late in the game,” said Carey. “We have to be better with four errors on the night. Tristin (Burkitt, the EC starter) worked around that well and held runners on base.”
Dustin Howard took the loss for the Wildcats.
SUMMARY
April 3 2019
@East Clinton High School
East Clinton 6 Blanchester 5
BL 001.003.1…..5
EC 200.100.3…..6
(5) BLANCHESTER (ab-r-h-rbi) Burch 4-1-1-2 Rice 4-0-1-1 Howard 2-1-1-0 Ficke 2-1-1-0 Rector 4-0-1-0 Czaika 3-1-1-1 Frump 4-1-2-0 Tedrick 4-0-1-1 Potts 4-0-2-0 Stubbs 1-0-0-0. TOTALS 32-5-11-5
(6) EAST CLINTON (ab-r-h-rbi) Z. Mitchell 3-2-2-0 Curtis 3-1-0-0 Hall 3-2-1-2 Burkitt 2-1-1-1 Arellano 3-0-1-1 M. Mitchell 3-0-2-1 Riddle 3-0-0-0 Bean 3-0-0-0 Tolle 2-0-0-0 Norman 0-0-0-0 Horn 0-0-0-0 Cam Vadnais 0-0-0-0 Col Vadnais 0-0-0-0. TOTALS 25-6-7-5
2B: BL-Burch, Rice
SB: EC-Burkitt, Z. Mitchell 3, M. Mitchell; BL-Howard 3, Czaika, Ficke
PITCHING^IP^H^R^ER^BB^SO
Blanchester
Frump^6^6^5^4^4^7
Howard (L)^0.1^1^1^1^0^0
East Clinton
Burkitt^5.2^11^4^4^0^3
Z. Mitchell^0.1^0^1^1^2^0
Stewart (W)^1^0^0^0^0^1
