Published: April 30, 2008 11:49 pm            

Hieneman shuts out ’Cats in pitchers’ duel

Game gets over fast as two of region’s best take to mound

LLOYD — Greenup County and Ashland went head-to-head Wednesday night, with each team putting its ace on the mound. It took just under an hour and a half for the Musketeers to come away with a 2-0 victory, their eighth-straight win.

“It was probably the cleanest baseball game that you’ll see two teams play,” Greenup County coach Greg Logan said. “I was glad we chose to throw Tyler (Hieneman) out there. If we didn’t, it might have been a tough battle for us and we could’ve came up on the losing side this time.”

Hieneman pitched the complete game to pick up the win for Greenup County. The left-hander struck out 10-of-25 batters faced, scattered three hits without issuing a walk and threw just 89 pitches.

“He had his better stuff tonight,” Logan said. “He gave up three hits but they were scattered out so it didn’t affect us all that much.”

Ashland countered with right-hander Caleb Rigsby, who also pitched a complete game. He gave up five hits, struck out six and walked just one.

“Both pitchers were on their game today,” Ashland coach Jeff Wilcox said. “Rigsby pitched a heck of a game for us. He pitched out of trouble a couple of times and we were very pleased.”

The Musketeers’ offense got going in the bottom of the first with Eric Craft, Zack Stringfellow and Billy Logan all reaching on consecutive singles. Logan’s hit knocked in Craft for the 1-0 lead but Stringfellow was caught on Hieneman’s fielder’s choice. Rigsby recorded his first strikeout of the game to strand Logan and Hieneman and keep the damage minimal.

“We kind of let our guard down there in the first inning and didn’t take advantage of our first three guys getting on with a base hit,” Logan said.

The Musketeers tacked on a run in the second. Craft, who was 2-for-3 on the night, led off with a single and eventually scored because of an Ashland balk.

“They made some plays and scored a couple of runs and that’s all they needed,” Wilcox said. “I thought we were on our toes defensively and did a good job out there. We just didn’t get the timely hit we needed to put a little pressure on them.”

The Tomcats had some opportunities but stranded four runners in the game. Both defenses went to work after the third inning and the teams managed just one hit apiece from that point on, which accounted for the only base runners in the last half of the game. Both were stranded.

Ashland slipped to 15-6 on the season and will travel to 64th District rival Boyd County tonight for a 7 p.m. game.

Greenup County improved to 22-6 and will be off until Monday, when the Musketeers travel to Fairview.

ASHLAND 000 000 0 — 0 3 1

GREENUP 101 000 x — 2 5 1

Rigsby and Duvall; Hieneman and Logan. W — Hieneman, L — Rigsby. 2B: Duvall (A).

        

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