It Just Got Away

Butler 6, Chillicothe 2

This game was very competitive. Both teams showed what they could do, and they tried to execute some interesting plays, but only one team had to prevail here, and unfortuantely for the big Paints fans out there, the Butler BlueSox were that team. This was just a game that got away from the home team late. You'd have to say that this game was evenly played by both teams, and neither team wanted to go away quietly, but Butler got in the extra explosives in the final two innings, giving them the victory.

Even though the Chillicothe Paints lost this game, there's no doubt in my mind that you have to tip your cap to the likes of Rex Ingham, who started this game for the Paints. Rex was very, very impressive in this start considering everything that was going on in this game. Rex was like a bulldog here, because he hung in there to face batters and he actually got them out when time was running thin for him in this game. As far as resiliency goes, Ingham was solid, in my opinion.

Rex Ingham would go 7 and 2/3 innings deep in his start, giving up 8 hits and a total of three runs, which of course isn't good, but still, look at the glass half-full for this one, and he would strike out three batters. The good thing about his start was that he didn't give up any walks to the BlueSox, and he wasn't really wild at all. I was pretty amazed that he stayed in this game for this long because usually our starting pitchers would just get out of there after 6 innings or so, but 7 and 1/3 and trying for 8 innings is something to really take note.

Mark Williams pitched 2/3 of an inning and gave up just a hit while striking out a batter. Chadd Steinborn was called in to be the stopper for the ninth inning, but as this story goes, he didn't quite hold the BlueSox in check. He gave up three runs off of four hits allowed. This wasn't the best relief appearance made by Steinborn, and all of the momentum that the Paints had mustered to get to the ninth inning supposedly faded away once the BlueSox broke the game wide open. That's just how it goes in baseball, folks. You'll have good days, and then you'll have not so good days.

For the offense, Ben Allen had a single, a stolen base, and got an RBI off a sacrifice fly. Kyle Gendron, playing at first base in this game, had a single. Zach Leonard had a single. Steven Mirizzi had a single. Kris McDonough had a double. Tim Krofcheck had a single and an RBI. What can we take from this offensive performance? Well, I'm not quite sure what happened at certain points because some of the swings felt pretty sudden, and those swings ended up being high fly balls caught for outs. It's interesting in a way because sometimes you just get fooled by certain pitches. It happens to all baseball players, I'm sure.

If you're wondering about what the standings look like in the Prospect League's Eastern Division, then I should let you in on this little tidbit. The North Coast Knights came into this night 1 and 1/2 games behind the Paints for first place, and they played a doubleheader against the Slippery Rock Sliders, and combine this Paints loss to the Knights' doubleheader sweep, then you'll probably have an idea of exactly how tight this race is right now.