Baseball: Ashton Pecher, Hall take down Ottawa

SPRING VALLEY – The way things transpired for the Hall Red Devils, Friday the 13th had much less significance than the bottom of the first.

The Devils burst out of the gate against Ottawa with four runs in the very first inning – the key blow a booming two-run double by Riley Coble – then put the game into the hands of starting pitcher Ashton Pecher for five innings of two-hit, one-run baseball.

Add a big two-run home run from Ethan Plym and two innings of solid relief pitching from Max Bryant and the home team was on its way to a 9-2 victory over the Pirates on Foley Field at Kirby Park.

Pecher gave up one earned run, struck out five and walked two to earn the win, helped by Bryant’s three-strikeout, no earned run effort and some outstanding defensive plays, lifted the Hall record to 18-7 on the year.

“I felt like at first it was kinda rough to get two strikes on them, but eventually I began to find my rhythm,” Pecher said. “Our four-run first inning gave me a little relief and allowed me to mix my pitches a little more to try and get ahead earlier in the count. You have to get ahead early … But I’m just glad we got the win.”

Taking the loss for the Pirates (13-12) was Connor Price, who over four innings was touched for six earned runs, five hits and two walks while fanning six before yielding to reliever Justus Mason for the final two frames.

Price hit the first batter he faced, Mac Resetich, then gave up an infield hit to Kyler Lapp and a walk to Ethan Plym to load the bases. That’s when Coble crushed a pitch to deep right-center field to drive in the first two runs. A sacrifice fly by Drake Garland and a wild pitch plated the last two for a 4-0 Hall lead.

The hosts added on with two more runs in the second on a long double to center by Resetich and a long home run that cleared the street outside the left field fence by Plym.

“To be honest, I don’t feel like we got off the bus ready to play today,” Ottawa coach Tyler Wargo said. “We came out kinda flat and when you do that, chances are things aren’t going to go your way. We gave them too many free bases and they took advantage of those, plus they had some timely hits also. I don’t think they had a ton of hits, but they had some loud ones – the home run, a triple, a double – and we’re not at a point this season where we can just go through the motions and expect to win and compete.

“We weren’t ready to start this one and I will certainly take the blame for that, not having us prepared. We did hit some balls hard early on, but that’s secondary in my mind to the energy we were missing today.”

OHS got a run back in the third on a single by Zander Baxter and an RBI double by Daniel Bruner, but Hall answered in the fourth with a triple by Gabe Lucas and a run-scoring ground out by Resetich.

The final Ottawa run came in the sixth on an error and a run-scoring single by Rylan Dorsey. However, an RBI single by Bryant in the sixth and Resetich being hit again and scoring in the seventh capped the Devils’ day.

“It was a good outing by Ashton and it was also nice to come out and get some runs early, because we’ve been struggling a little bit offensively the last few games,” Hall coach Tom Keegan said. “That allowed (Pecher) to throw free and easy for a while.

“Pitching has been a constant for us … Ashton’s been good all year, but especially these last two outings (Eureka, Ottawa). He’s incredibly efficient, he gets outs for us and he works quick, so the defense likes to play behind him. We had to make the change because of his pitch count, but we wanted to give Max some time too, so with the quality outing by Austin, it worked out perfectly for us.”