GREENVILLE – Trotwood-Madison had one of its strongest teams in years, but the Greenville baseball team still handled the Rams 13-3 in a five-inning run rule on Friday.
Trotwood hasn’t won a game since 2012 but showed signs of progress on Friday night by scoring runs in each of the first three innings against Greenville.
“We could have played better, I’ll put it that way,” Greenville baseball coach Eric Blumenstock said. “It’s tough. They come into it knowing the starters are only going to play a couple innings. We try to hold back as much as possible, but on the other hand we need to learn how to come out a little bit more serious for stuff like this and take care of it early. It was still a close game in the second inning. There were some good things but also some things we can talk about, which I want every game, something we can talk about to fix.”
Trotwood-Madison’s Ra’Veion Hargrove showed he’s capable of doing damage on the base paths after drawing a leadoff walk to begin the game. Hargrove then stole second and third before scoring on a grounder by Camrin Wilson to put the Rams up 1-0.
“Ra’Veion Hargrove, the third baseman, he gets on base, he’s going to score so you can’t give him a free one,” Blumenstock said. “We gave him a free one in the first inning. You go through and look at all their scores throughout the year there’s one or two runs and Ra’Veion’s the one’s that’s putting the runs on the board.”
Greenville managed to take the lead in the bottom half of the inning, a lead it held the rest of the game.
Landon Eldridge and Tyler Beyke drew back-to-back walks to start the bottom half of the inning then scored on a two-RBI triple by Logan Eldridge, giving the Wave a 2-1 advantage.
Tanner Ross then reached base on a Trotwood error, which scored Logan Eldridge and put Greenville up 3-1.
In the second inning Keonte Huguely picked up Trotwood’s lone hit of the game with a single into left field. He took second base on a wild pitch, went to third on a balk and scored on a wild pitch, cutting the Green Wave lead to 3-2.
Greenville then took control of the game in the bottom half of the second inning.
Tytan Grote started the rally with a single, Brandon Beyke reached on an error and Landon Eldridge walked to load the bases.
Greenville got one run in when Tyler Beyke reached on an error and added two more with a two-run single by Logan Eldridge, making it 6-2.
Ross again reached base on an error, which also brought in a run to make it 7-2, then Peter Pandey brought in two runs with a double to make it 9-2.
Trotwood scored its final run of the game in the third inning. Jalen Watson walked then scored when Thomas McGuire reached base on a Greenville error, making the score 9-3.
Greenville added two more runs in the bottom half of the third frame. Brandon Beyke led off with a single and Landon Eldridge doubled to put two runners in scoring position. Tyler Beyke then singled, which combined with a throwing error brought in both base runners and made it 11-3.
Greenville scored its final two runs in the fourth inning when Ethan Saylor, Grote and Garrett Strait recorded three consecutive singles, which coupled with a Trotwood error allowed two runs to score and make it 13-3.
“Best team they’ve had since I’ve been here to be honest with you,” Blumenstock said of Trotwood-Madison. “A handful of solid baseball players.”
Greenville had 10 hits and three errors on Friday while Trotwood had one hit and five errors.
Logan Eldridge went 2-for-3 with a triple, two runs and four RBI for Greenville. Grote was 2-for-3 with a stolen base and scored two runs. Pandey was 1-for-2 with a double, a stolen base and two RBI. Tyler Beyke was 1-for-2 with a walk, a stolen base, two runs and three RBI.
Landon Eldridge was 1-for-1 with two walks, two stolen bases and three runs. Garrett Strait was 1-for-1 with two RBI. Brandon Beyke was 1-for-2, stole two bases and scored two runs. Saylor was 1-for-1 and scored a run. Ross stole a base, scored a run and drove in two runs.
Hunter Anderson earned the win as he pitched the first four innings, allowing one earned run and two unearned runs on one hit, three walks, one hit batter and eight strikeouts. Nathan Fry pitched a scoreless inning in relief, striking out one batter while allowing no hits.
Greenville improved to 6-2 overall and 3-1 in the Greater Western Ohio Conference with Friday’s win.
