Hornets Split a Pair of Games in St. Joseph

The Chillicothe Hornets baseball team had a pair of game in St. Joseph on Wednesday night. The double header from Phil Welch Stadium featured the Hornets taking on Bishop Leblond in a conference match, then squaring off against Benton.

Chillicothe handled business against Leblond 16-4 to improve to 5-0 in MEC play. Against Benton in the 2nd game the Hornets were unable to keep the bats firing at that level. In the bottom of the first inning, with Jack Marshall drawing the start on the mound, the Hornets surrendered three runs, as Benton took an early lead. The Cardinals added another in the 2nd and Marshall was replaced on the mound by Cooper Helton. The freshman pitcher provided a scoreless third inning, but the Benton bats began heating up again, knocking in two in the 4th and three in the 5th to race ahead 9-0.

Zaidyn Woodward drew the start on the mound for Benton, pitching the entire game in impressive order. It wasn’t until the 6th inning when Chillicothe got on the board. The Hornets scratched Howie Donoho and Dane Ireland across home plate on RBIs from Marshall and Cooper Robinson to make it 9-2.

Robinson relieved Helton on the mound but the changes did not slow down the Cardinals offensive. Benton added another trio of runs in the bottom of the 6th inning to win 12-2.

The defeat snapped the Hornets 7 game win streak, but Chillicothe still sports an impressive 18-7 mark on the year while standing as the last unbeaten in conference play.