PIQUA – The Greenville Thunder 19U baseball team defeated the Piqua 19U American Legion Post 184 by a convincing 11-3 score while defeating Jack Olberding, a recent NCAA D-I Toledo University baseball signee.
“It was an awesome game,” said Thunder coach Chad Henry. “We always play really well against Piqua. It’s a fun team to play against but when you have a little bit extra on the line it makes everything fun.”
Greenville Thunder had some unfinished business to tend to after the Piqua’s 19U team, the lone 19U team in Troy’s July 4thJunior tournament defeated the Thunder’s junior squad made up of freshman and sophomores by an 8-0 score in the championship game with Olberding going the distance for the Piqua senior 19U win.
“At Troy there was a little bit of a SNAFU where they had a 19U team (Piqua) that was playing in a 17U tournament,” said Henry. “It wasn’t a fault of their own, they were asked to be in it so when that went down we didn’t like the situation.”
“We really wanted to come out and I think everybody has a Legion ball story,” Henry continued. “The kids go back and forth with each other on social media and we kind of came in with a little bit of a hatchet to bury.”
Piqua grabbed an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first before Greenville plate a run in the top of the third with Logan Stastny scoring on a passed ball to trail 2-1. Neither team would score in the fourth.
Greenville’s bats came alive plating three fifth-inning runs to lead 4-2 in the top of the inning along with Piqua’s starting pitcher being ejected from the game.
“We kind of got to the guy that shut them out last week and we got to him about the fourth or fifth inning, got himself ejected and the floodgates were open,” Henry stated. “We made it 4-2 right and something happened, a ball was dropped and we exploded right there.”
The Thunder’s bats exploded for five runs in the top of the sixth inning extending its lead to 9-2 over Post 184.
Piqua added a run in the bottom of the sixth for a 9-3 score before the Greenville added two insurance runs in the top of the seventh for an 11-3 score in what would prove to be the final score of the night.
Matt O’Dell earned the win for Greenville tossing a complete game allowing three runs on three hits while striking out five Piqua batters. Jack Oberding was saddled with the Piqua loss.
Tytan Grote went 2-4 with a double and 4-RBIs and Alec Fletcher was 1-1 with a triple, a RBI and a run scored. Logan Stastny went 1-3 with a walk and 3-runs scored, Johnny Reser was 1-2 with a walk and 3-runs scored, Tyler Beyke went 1-2 with 2-walks, 2-runs and a RBI, Trent Collins 1-3 with a run scored, Grant Delk had a walk, a RBI and a run and Jarin Young rounded out the night going 1-4 for the Greenville Thunder.
