Mustangs baseball earn wins against Ripley and Blanchester

The Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs baseball team earned two regular season wins in recent games by defeating the Ripley Blue Jays, 18-1 on May 8 and the Blanchester Wildcats by a 5-0 score on May 12. 

Against Ripley at LCHS this past Friday, the Mustangs won in five innings as they scored six runs in the bottom of the first, followed by a five-run second, four runs in the third and three more runs in the fourth inning. RHS scored one run in the top of the fifth. 

The Mustangs finished with 16 hits and no errors, while Ripley had one hit and five errors. 

Elam Faust finished 3-for-3 with four runs and a walk. Kristian Beachy went 2-for-2 with one run and a walk. Tristin Puckett finished 2-for-2 with two runs. 

Tanner Roberts ended the game at 2-for-2 with three runs, three RBI and two walks. Caden Boone ended the day at 2-for-2 with one run and two RBI. 

Quin Wells was 1-for-1 with two runs, and one RBI. Aiden Bene went 1-for-2 with one run. Harley Lewis finished 1-for-3 with three runs, two RBI and a walk. Alex Van Fleet went 1-for-2 with two RBI. Aric Slack was 1-for-1 with three RBI and a walk. 

Max Baker scored a run, had an RBI and walked once. Luke Davis finished with an RBI and two walks. 

Extra base hits went to Slack and Beachy with doubles. Boone (two), Slack and Wells were all hit by a pitch. 

Roberts (three), Faust (two), Lewis (two), Beachy (two), Boone, Luke Davis and Wells all had steals. 

Wells was the winning pitcher as he pitched two innings, allowing no earned runs, no hits, no walks and he collected five strikeouts. Bene pitched one inning with no hits, no walks and no runs allowed with three strikeouts. 

Roberts pitched one inning where he also allowed no hits, runs or walks with two strikeouts. Faust pitched one inning as he allowed no runs or walks with one hit and three strikeouts. LCHS pitching combined faced 16 batters. 

Aiden Bolar had the lone hit for Ripley. 

BOX SCORE
RHS      000 010 x — 1 1 5 
LCHS    654 3xx x — 18 16 0 

The No. 4 Division V state-ranked Lynchburg-Clay Mustangs —  one day following clinching a perfect SHAC season against the Fayetteville Rockets with a 7-5 win at Fayetteville High School — hosted the Blanchester Wildcats Tuesday, where they won by a 5-0 score. 

The Mustangs scored their first two runs in the bottom of the second inning, then added two more runs in the bottom of the fourth and a final run crossed the plate in the fifth inning. 

LCHS finished with seven hits and five errors. The Wildcats had three hits and two errors. 

Harley Lewis ended the game with two hits as he was 2-for-3 with one run, one and two RBI. 

Quin Wells was 1-for-3 with one run and a triple. Tanner Roberts went 1-for-3 with a run and a steal. 

Trevor Niehaus was 1-for-3 with a run and one RBI. Luke Davis finished 1-for-2 with an RBI and a steal. Aric Slack ended the game at 1-for-3 with an RBI. 

Elam Faust walked once. Kristian Beachy collected an RBI and hit a sacrifice fly. The Mustangs also had Max Baker with one run and a walk. 

Niehaus was the winning pitcher as the junior pitched a complete game (seven innings) where he had the shutout win. Niehaus allowed no runs on three hits and three walks with eight strikeouts on 112 pitches. 

For Blanchester, Drew Davenport was 1-for-4, and Caleb Mobley was 2-for-3 with a double. 

The win improves the Mustangs to an overall record of 18-3. 

BOX SCORE
BHS      000 000 0 — 0 3 2 
LCHS    020 210 x — 5 7 5