Big Red edges Edison, 1-0
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RICHMOND -- For the second time during the final week of Ohio's regular season, Big Red and Edison met on the artificial turf diamond inside the Edison Sports Complex for a final tune up before the tournament.
Steubenville got an early run and junior righty Cooper Blackburn was cruising on the mound before rain put a halt to the proceedings three times and the umpires decided to make the game official through five complete, giving Big Red the 1-0 victory, its second in as many nights and avenging its 4-1 loss to the Wildcats on Wednesday.
"It was a good tune up game for us and a nice win for us," Big Red head coach Fred Heatherington said. "We got a nice win (over St. Clairsville on Thursday) too. Anytime us and Edison play each other it is a tournament atmosphere, whether it's early in the year or late in the year.
"We like to play late in the year because I think it helps both teams going into the tournament. They're going to do well in their tournament and hopefully we do well in ours."
Blackburn had fanned seven, did not issue a walk and had a low pitch count through five innings scattering five Wildcat singles when things were halted for good.
"He had all four of his pitches working," Heatherington said. "He threw well."
The game's only run came in the top of the first as Zach Smith led off with a triple and scored on J.T. Thompson's RBI single.
"We started off early and it ended up holding up for us," Heatherington said. "Weather-wise, what are you gonna do?"
Edison's Cam Cooley shook off the early run and finished out four strong innings before Isaac Zastudil tossed a scoreless fifth through an interruption by the weather.
The Wildcats had a golden opportunity to tie the game or even jump ahead in the bottom of the fifth when Zastudil and Clancey singled to start off then a Hunter Rothacker sac bunt put them both in scoring position with one away.
Blackburn, though, fired a strikeout and got a groundout to get out of his toughest jam.
"I thought it was a well-played game and their pitcher did really well," Edison head coach Mike Collopy said. "I thought our guys threw well, too. We had a chance there with guys on second and third and just didn't get a timely hit. That's how it goes sometimes."
With the game clicking off at a pace that would have had it completed in about an hour, the first delay occurred with two outs in the top of the fifth inning when a sudden shower turned into a downpour for about 10 minutes.
Things got going again and the fifth inning was complete before another downpour halted the action for about another 15 minutes, then, with one out in the top of the six after the game had restarted, the rain picked up once again and this time there was thunder and lightning.
After about a half hour and with the rain still coming down too hard for even the turf surface to handle, the umpires declared the game official.
"Everything now is about being ready to play (in the tournament)," Collopy said. "These two programs have a lot of respect for each other. They're well-coached every year and we know what we're going to get when we play them.
"These last two games with them were really good and will prepare us (for sectionals)."
UP NEXT
Big Red: Will host Carrollton at Vaccaro Field on Tuesday in Division II sectional action.
Edison: Is set to travel to Fort Frye to open its tournament run in Division III on Monday.
Big Red 1, Edison 0
(Shortened by rain through five complete)
Big Red 1-0-0 0-0 - 1 3 0
Edison 0-0-0 0-0 - 0 5 0
BIG RED: Blackburn (WP, CG, 0R, 5H, 7K, 0BB) and Smith. Smith T; Thompson S, RBI; Fleming S.
EDISON: Cooley (LP, 4IP, 1R, 1ER, 3H, 0K, 1BB), Zastudil (1IP, 0R, 0H, 0K, 0BB, 1HBP) and Wilson. Watson S; McBane S; Zastudil 2S; Clancey S. =