Behind a complete-game effort from pitcher Nathan Eschbaugh, the Zanesville Junior Pioneers edged J.L. Thomas of Cleveland 3-2 Monday afternoon in the opening round of the AAABA Tournament at Fichtner Field at Johnstown Middle School.
Eschbaugh and the Pioneers held off Cleveland after building a 3-0 lead through four innings with Zanesville completing an escape act in the ninth as Cleveland had the game-tying run at third with two outs.
“(Eschbaugh) has been our best pitcher all year,” Zanesville manager Doug Pollock said. “We’ve had a lot of games in the regular season like this that went against us, so we stuck with him and one time it went our way, so we’re fortunate.”
After a close out at first on a grounder by pinch-hitter Jim Martin started the ninth, Cleveland (0-1) laced back-to-back hits with a single from John Ulanski and a hustle double to right from Scott Foster. Ulanski, who had two hits, came home on Shane Spies’ grounder to first.
With Foster standing at third, left-fielder Evann Farren popped out to right to close out the contest.
“The hits just didn’t drop in, that’s all,” Cleveland manager Dave Thomas said.
Eschbaugh allowed seven hits and fanned two to nab the opening win for the Pioneers.
“We’re actually short 17 wins from pitchers that didn’t make the trip for various reasons,” Pollock said. “We were really happy to get a complete game here and know that we’ll be at least playing Wednesday, so our pitching isn’t in such dire shape if we would have used three or four pitchers (Monday).”
Zanesville scored in the second when Jordan Buchanan grounded into a fielder’s choice at short, moved to second as Wade Kaido drew a walk and then scored on Jordan Foster’s single to left.
Another pair of runs against Cleveland starter Greg Turk came across in the fifth as Kyle Stoughton and Buchanan connected on back-to-back singles with one out. A two-out walk by Jordan Foster loaded the bases for Chaz Mohler, who grounded a 2-1 pitch from Turk between the legs of third baseman Erik Mathis, allowing Stoughton and Buchanan to score.
Turk worked eight innings in the loss with five hits allowed and five strikeouts with only one of his three runs allowed being earned.
“(Turk) pitched real well,” Thomas said. “Greg throws real hard and he’s a good pitcher.”
Cleveland got a run in the fifth as Scott Foster reached base on a fielder’s choice and took second on Spies’ single to center. Two batters later, a single to left from T.J. Murphy plated Foster to cut into the Zanesville lead.
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