The Chillicothe Mudcats fell on Friday evening to the Carroll Merchants in a close game and lose for eighth straight ball game.
There was no score through the first inning of play after Carroll stranded two, and Chillicothe stranded one on the bases.
In the second, Hayden Oliver smacked a two-out, two-RBI double into left-center field that scored Maverick DeVeau and Jarrett Herz to make it 2-0 Carroll at that point, Chillicothe then went scoreless once again in the bottom of the second.
That scored stayed the same for a while on Friday.
Mudcat starting pitcher, Max Wagers settled in really well and shut the Merchants down for the next four innings.
However, Chillicothe was also stagnant on offense as well through the middle innings. The Mudcats were unable to push any across during Carroll’s four scoreless innings. 2-0 in favor of the Merchants through six innings.
Heading to the seventh inning, the Merchants tacked on another one to their two-run lead on a Braylen Nystrom sacrifice fly that scored Sam Weller.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Mudcats scored their first and only run of the ballgame. Ryder McClain recorded a sacrifice fly that scored Cole Adair to make it 3-1 after seven innings of play.
That was all the exercise the scoreboard got tonight. The Merchants and Mudcats both threw up zeros on the board in each of the eighth and ninth innings, and the Carroll Merchants win it by a final score of 3-1.
Tonight, it was the story of stranding runners on base, and not being able to hit with runners in scoring position for Chillicothe. The Mudcats stranded 12 men on base on Friday, including the bases loaded in both the fifth and sixth innings, and no hits with RISP. That was the big struggle for Chillicothe on Friday evening, and eventually, the 3-1 loss.
The Mudcats drop to 1-8 on the season, and losing their eighth game in a row.
Chillicothe is back home at Shaffer Park on Saturday against the Carroll Merchants, first pitch will now be at 11 a.m. in hopes to beat the impending rain and avoid another rain out.