The Chillicothe Mudcats fell at the hands of the St. Joseph Mustangs in their first Friday night road trip of the season at Phil Welch Stadium in St. Joseph, Mo.
Trouble started early for Chillicothe after it went scoreless in the top of the first. The Mustangs sent across four runs in the bottom of the first, capped off by a Jaden Little three-run triple into the right-center field gap. 4-0 St. Joseph after an inning of play.
The Mudcats were able to produce one in the third inning when Taydem Hashimoto crossed the dish on a double steal play for Chillicothe. 4-1 Mustangs after three innings at Phil Welch.
The Mustangs tacked on another run in the fifth on a Jayden Little infield single, his fourth RBI of the evening. 5-1 Mustangs after five innings of play.
Chillicothe then began to produce more offense in the later innings.
Aiden Baerenklau drove in two runs on a hard-hit line drive single down the right field line to make it a 5-3 ballgame heading to the bottom half of the frame.
Just as it looked like Chillicothe had momentum on its side after five and a half innings, the Mustangs responded with four more runs of their own in the bottom of the sixth in the midst of a flurry of Mudcat errors in the inning. 9-3 St. Joseph after six.
The Mudcats, however, did not go down quietly. Chillicothe responded with two runs in each of the seventh and eighth innings.
Cole Adair smacked a solo home run that cleared the right field deck to make it a 9-4 game, and JP Gonzalez recorded an RBI groundout scoring Jevon Raboy to make it 9-5. That score stayed true through seven innings.
In the eighth inning, Koby Wagers blasted a solo shot of his own well over the left field fence to make it 9-6, and Taydem Hashimoto singled in Cole Adair to cut the Mustang lead to two. 9-7 Mustangs after eight.
That was all Chillicothe could produce in the ballgame on Friday. The Mudcats were set down in order in the ninth and the Mustangs won the ballgame by the final score of 9-7.
Chillicothe drops the first game of its four-game weekend road trip and slip to 1-3 on the season and 1-2 in the MINK league. The Mudcats are now on a three-game losing streak as well.
Chillicothe will look to get back in the win column on Saturday evening against the Carroll Merchants on the road. First pitch is slated for 6:30 p.m.