WALES — Ethan Vattaso was a force for Oak Hill on the mound and at the plate against Madison on Wednesday.
The senior paced the offense with a triple and a single while driving in three runs and scoring twice in the Raiders’ 11-1 five-inning baseball victory over the Bulldogs. On the hill, he allowed only one run on nine hits and struck out two.
“The first inning wasn’t great; we let a base runner get by us a little bit,” Oak Hill coach Chad Stowell said. “But Ethan had a great response, and it was almost a switch after his at-bat — we kind of locked it in after that. It’s pretty impressive; he’s starting to heat up in the leadoff spot.”
Xavier Estes led off the game with a single for the Bulldogs. He stole second and moved to third on a ground out, then scored on a Dominic Mercier single to left.
Madison (2-6) loaded the bases after Griffin Aldrich walked and Deacon Murray singled, but Vattaso struck out William Wheeler to end the inning.
“We were making errors, not hitting the ball timely,” Madison coach Shawn Bean said. “It catches up with you against a good team.”
Vattaso only allowed four hits between the second and fourth innings.
“Those middle innings, after we scored those runs, I felt a little more confident out there,” Vattaso said. “I feel like I just have to throw strikes and our defense is strong, so I know they will make plays.”
Vattaso started the bottom of the first with a triple to left center and scored on a Kyle Delano single.
Oak Hill’s Ethan Vattaso follows through on a pitch Wednesday afternoon during a game against Madison in Wales. Russ Dillingham/Sun Journal
“I was looking to be aggressive. We were already down 1-0 and I wanted to take a big hack,” Vattaso said. “I liked the first pitch, and it was a good swing.”
After Grayson Letourneau walked, Landon Bangs drove in Delano with a single for a 2-1 Raiders lead. Oak Hill (7-1), though, left Letourneau and Bangs stranded in scoring position.
The Raiders capitalized on Madison’s mistakes at the bottom of the second. Aaron Ridlon singled and moved to second on an Austin Hays balk.
“He gets frustrated, and when guys behind you make mistakes, it’s tough when you are throwing a good game,” Bean said.
Ridlon scored later in the inning on an error. Delano reached first on an error and later scored on another balk for a 4-1 advantage.
“We put the ball in play, and they made some miscues and we were able to capitalize,” Stowell said. “I thought we ran the bases really well after yesterday, (when) we had some base running mistakes at Lisbon. I thought we capitalized on their defensive miscues.”
Vattaso hit a two-run single in the bottom of the third to extend Oak Hill’s lead to 6-1. An error by the right fielder allowed Vattaso to advance to third base on the play.
Oak Hill’s big inning came in the bottom of the fourth. Delano started the surge with a single and later scored on single by Bangs that dropped into center for a 7-1 lead.
The Raiders scored two more runs via bases-loaded walks. Vattaso hit a comebacker with the bases loaded to reliever Matthew Haley, but Haley overthrew the catcher and a run scored to push the lead to 10-1. Trent Drouin grounded into a fielder’s choice that brought in another run to make it 11-1.
Madison tried to extend the game in the top of the fifth when Haley and Hays led off with back-to-back line drive singles to center field and Mercier walked to load the bases and end Vattaso’s day on the mound.
Trent Droiun entered in relief and got Aldrich to pop out, then he struck out Deacon Murray and William Wheeler to end the game.
“It’s nice we have a guy like Trent that can come in and finish the game off,” Stowell said. “He was pretty tough (to hit) tonight.”
Send questions/comments to the editors.
