SHENANDOAH JUNCTION, W.Va. — Bayden Hartman tossed a three-hitter, struck out seven batters, scored twice and had a pair of hits as Musselman defeated Jefferson, 8-2 Tuesday evening at Sager Field.
Hartman yielded one earned run and walked just three batters in his first extended action on the mound this season.
“He was on tonight. There’s no doubt about it. He hadn’t pitched many innings this year. I think he was only at two innings coming in. So he did a great job in a complete game. He was ahead in the count all night. He did a great job for us,” said Musselman head coach Josh Hartman.
The Applemen (5-3) set the tone early by scoring five runs in the first two innings. A sacrifice fly from Jason Myers and a run-scoring single from Wyatt McClintock staked the Applemen to a 2-0 lead. In the second, an RBI single from Kyle Lore and a two-run single by Taryn Boyles extended the visitors’ lead to 5-0.
“If you establish the momentum early in the game, four big runs early and we jumped on them with another one with five, anytime you get momentum like that, it carries over inning to inning.”
Jefferson pushed two runs across in the fourth inning. Caleb Fletcher scored on a throwing error and Riley Morgan took home on a double steal to pull the Cougars within three runs. However, the Applemen added one run in the sixth and two more in the seventh to rebuild a sizable lead.
Musselman has won five consecutive games after an 0-3 start.
“Nobody ever wants to start out 0-3. These guys kind of flipped the script. We are playing well right now and we are just going to take it one game at a time.
“I have never beaten them. That’s a big win for Musselman and a big win for our program. Absolutely any time you can beat those guys, it is a good day.”
Lore led the Applemen with three hits and a pair of RBI. Hartman, Boyles, McClintock and Dylan Stevens also had multi-hit games for Musselman.
Fletcher, Morgan and Will Polvinale had base hits for the No. 8 Cougars (3-3)