Photo by Andrew Grimm ON THE MOVE — Toronto's Heath Thomas runs to third base after a teammate put the ball in play during Thursday's game against Big Red.

Toronto hosted Big Red in an early season battle of the unbeatens at the KBC, and the state-ranked Red Knights earned an impressive 5-2 victory in front of a packed crowd.

“It was a beautiful day and the kids came ready to play,” Toronto head coach Brian Perkins said. “They were excited to play Steubenville on TV and they came out and performed very well.

“Steubenville is always a great team, coach (Justin) Banks is a great guy and great coach, this is a big win for us.

“It had been a long time since we played each other. It’s nice to have them back on the schedule.”

Photo by Andrew Grimm CELEBRATING — Toronto plays rush out of the dugout to celebrate a run with Drake Bouscher on Thursday.

After falling behind 2-1 in the second inning, the Red Knights (3-0) scored the final four runs of the game and out-hit Steubenville 6-2 . A three-run third inning made the difference for the hosts.

“We had a lot of guys come up with some clutch hits,” Perkins said. “If you’re going to win big games against good pitchers, you have to come up with some big at-bats and we had some guys really come through today. I’m proud of the whole line up, one-through-nine.”

Toronto entered the first week of action ranked No. 2 in Ohio Division VI in the Ohio Prep Baseball Coaches Association preseason poll.

“We only had two hits and you’re not going to win very many games in the Valley that way, especially against a state-ranked team,” Big Red head coach Justin Banks said. “I tip my cap to (Toronto starter Drake) Bouscher, he threw a lot of strikes and they made a lot of plays.

“We want to play challenging teams like them, we want to face the best pitching in the Valley and Bouscher is one of them.”

Photo by Andrew Grimm MAKING CONTACT — Big Red's Karson Simmons lines up a pitch with his swing against Toronto on Thursday.

Big Red starter Matt Fabbro struck out six and the only walk he issued was intentional, but ended up being a pitch away from getting out of a couple of jams as the Knights scored three of their runs with two outs.

“We just didn’t hit our spots today,” Banks said. “We gave up too many two-strike hits and didn’t get ahead in enough counts.”

Bouscher was able to go the distance despite not recording a strikeout and walking four. After Toronto had taken the lead, Big Red had a golden opportunity to strike back in the fourth when the first two batters drew walks, but Bouscher escaped unscathed.

“He really battled,” Perkins said. “It’s early in the season, he’s going to get even better as he goes. He’s a mentally tough kid and comes from a great family. He loves to compete and he wanted the ball. You could tell he wanted the ball by his attitude and way he performed with a two-hitter against a really good team.”

Toronto struck first in the bottom of the first when Bouscher smacked a one-out triple, the only extra base hit of the game, and scored on Michael Henry’s sac fly.

Photo by Andrew Grimm STRONG PERFORMNCE — Toronto starter Drake Bouscher delivers a pitch during Thursday's game against Big Red. He tossed a complete game to earn the win on the mound.

Big Red answered back with a pair in the top of the second as AJ Borsch hit an RBI single and then scored on a Karson Simmons line out to left that went deep enough for Borsch to tag up and make it 2-1.

Toronto’s big inning started with back-to-back singles from Max Rebich and Caden McGrath. Fabbro struck out the next two attempting to escape the jam, but Rebich scored on a passed ball and Lucas Wiseman and Gunnar Newbold hit back-to-back RBI singles to make it 4-2 Red Knights.

McGrath added a two-out RBI single in the fourth to add some cushion, and it ended up being more than enough for Bouscher and the Toronto defense, which played error-less ball.

Both teams are scheduled to be back in action today. Toronto is slated to host Western Reserve at 4:30 p.m. and Big Red has a second-straight state-ranked opponent as Indian Creek (No. 12 in the Division III) comes to the Crimson Complex at 4 p.m.

“We don’t have to wait very long to get back at it,” Banks said. “Creek is another big challenge, another state poll ranked team so we have to be ready to go and bounce back.”

Photo by Andrew Grimm ON THE RUN — Big Red's Nolan Blackburn races home on an RBI single to score on Thursday against Toronto.

Toronto 5, Steubenville 2

S 0-2-0 0-0-0 0 — 2 2 1

T 1-0-3 1-0-0 x — 5 6 0

STEUBENVILLE (3-1): Fabbro (LP, 6IP, 5R, 5ER, 6H, 6K, 1BB, 1HBP) and Simmons. Borsch S, RBI; Blackburn S; Simmons RBI.

TORONTO (3-0): Bouscher (WP, CG, 2R, 2ER, 2H, 0K, 4BB) and McGrath. McGrath 2S, RBI; Bouscher T; Wiseman S, RBI; G. Newbold S, RBI; Rebich S; Henry RBI.