Vandalia, Ohio — A pair of top DI Dayton squads would clash early on Saturday as the Miamisburg Vikings traveled north to take on the Butler Aviators. Both teams have high expectations coming into the season as they both are loaded with division one commits.
Butler would hand the ball to their ace Quinton Hall as the southpaw is currently committed to Eastern Kentucky University. Joining Hall behind the dish is Cincinnati commit and star catcher Boston Smith. To round out the DI trio at Butler is middle-infielder and Mount St. Mary’s commit Carson Clark.
Miamisburg would also throw their ace in this highly anticipated matchup as Louisville commit and the hard throwing righty Dane Hall would make his second start of the 2021 season. Joining Hall at Louisville next spring will be Miamisburg shortstop Will Cook. Cook is ranked as the #2 player in the class of 2021 accoridng to PBR.
Quinton Hall made easy work of the Miamisburg lineup in the first as he set them down in order with a pair of strikeouts on Cook and Sam Boardwine. Hall would then ignite the Aviator offense with a liner over the head of Will Cook at shortstop. Carson Clark then hit a line drive single into the left-centerfield gap which advanced Clark into second and Hall to third. Hall scored on a groundout by Boston Smith and Carson Clark would score on a wild pitch to make it 2-0.
The bleeding wouldn’t stop in the first inning just yet as Dane Hall walked a pair of batters to load the bases. Hall was then called for a balk and the score was eventually 5-0 after another RBI groundout and yet another wild pitch scored two more to give Butler the early lead.
Quinton Hall allowed one hit in the 2nd inning but he quickly picked that runner off and then struckout two more for another scoreless frame. Butler quickly loaded the bases again as a walk, a missed groundball and a perfect bunt set the Aviator offense up perfectly. Dane Hall would walk in a run and then Mike Masters would deliver the hit of the game as his one-out bases clearing double made it 9-0 in favor of Butler.
After giving up a leadoff double to Ethan Watkins, Hall bounced back with a pair of strikeouts. Butler then helped out their starter as Kaden Echeman fired it across the field to Casey Bennett to pick off Watkins and end the half-inning. Sam Boardwine entered the game to pitch for Miamisburg in the bottom of the third and the lefty had a solid inning of work as he allowed one base runner off of a walk but no runs.
Lakeland College commit Kaden Echeman entered the game to pitch for Butler in the 4th. He worked two scoreless innings while only allowing one hit which was a bloop single in shallow centerfield. Boardwine had a solid 4th inning as well only allowing one base runner but things started to fall apart in the bottom of the 5th.
After striking out the first two batters, the lefty walked a pair of batters before throwing a wild pitch which advanced both runners in scoring position. Quinton Hall then drew a walk to load the bases and Carson Clark ended the game as he was beamed on 3-2 pitch which walked in a run and made the score 10-0 which resulted in a run-rule victory for Butler.
Quinton Hall had a flawless day on the mound as he went 3 strong innings while only giving up 2 hits and 2 walks and he struck out 6 batters. Echeman went 2 innings for Butler while allowing just 1 hit and struck out 4 hitters. Carson Clark went 2-3 as he scored twice and had an RBI. Quinton Hall also went 2-3 while Mike Masters went 1-2 with a double and 3 RBI’s. Dane Hall went 2 innings for Miamisburg while allowing 9 runs (only 5 of those were earned), 3 hits and 5 walks. Sam Boardwine went 2 2/3 innings and allowed just one run.
Butler improves to 5-0 (3-0, MVL) on the season following this win and will to continue their success with three league games (at Stebbins, at Greenville, vs Greenville) this week before a big road matchup against Beavercreek. Miamisburg falls to 2-1 and won’t open up GWOC play until after next week as they have two non-league games against St. Xaveir and Chaminade Julienne this week.