Wahama Dalton Kearns, left, prepared to apply a tag to Southern’s Ryan Acree (1) during a stolen base attempt Friday night in a TVC Hocking baseball contest in Racine, Ohio.
Bryan Walters/OVP Sports
RACINE, Ohio — For the Wahama High School baseball team, it was about as good a week as it gets.
That’s because the White Falcons finished off a perfect 4-for-4 week in the Tri-Valley Conference Hocking Division, capping it with a 12-1 win over the host Southern Tornadoes on Friday evening at Star Mill Park in Racine.
The win was Wahama’s fourth consecutive, as the White Falcons are now 4-1 — and 4-0 in the TVC-Hocking.
The White Falcons shared the TVC-Hocking championship with Trimble last season.
The left loss the Tornadoes at 0-4 — with all games coming within the division.
In fact, for those into counting, Wahama has outscored its TVC-Hocking opponents 64-1 — with Southern scoring the only run in the seventh inning on Friday.
Otherwise, the White Falcons have blanked Federal Hocking 18-0 (March 26), South Gallia 24-0 (March 30), and Miller 10-0 (March 31).
Against Southern, Wahama led 5-0 following six innings, before erupting for seven runs on six hits in the seventh.
In all, the White Falcons finished with a dozen runs on a dozen hits, as the Tornadoes committed two errors.
Wahama scored twice in the opening and fifth innings, then tacked on a single point in the sixth, prior to the seventh-inning outburst.
The Tornadoes finally scored off Wahama pitcher Philip Hoffman , as Clayton Wood tripled to lead off — before scoring on a sacrifice fly by Trey Pickens.
Otherwise, Hoffman had things well on cruise control.
He tossed a complete game two-hitter, taking his one-hitter into the seventh.
He struck out 14, including for all three outs in the second thru fourth frames — and fanning eight in a row in the first thru third.
In fact, he had a perfect game going into the fourth, retiring the sides 1-2-3, before Dylan Smith reached on a leadoff error.
Hoffman stranded Smith at third, following a pair of passed balls.
In the fifth, Billy Harmon had a leadoff single, but Hoffman helped his cause by starting a 1-6-3 double play.
In the sixth, Garrett Wolfe was hit by a pitch, but he was caught stealing.
Hoffman aided his offensive cause by going 3-for-4 at the plate, as Tyler Grimm went 2-for-4 with a seventh-inning double.
Grimm doubled off Wood, who relieved Southern starting pitcher Blake Johnson, who went the opening six-and-a-third and suffered the loss.
Dalton Kearns collected a pair of singles, as Ricky Kearns, Mason Hicks and Ryan Thomas in the seventh, Jared Nutter in the first, and Colton Arrington in the sixth were the other Wahama hits — all singles.
Nutter and Hoffman had hits and runs scored in the first, as Johnson retired the White Falcons 1-2-3 in the second and fourth, sandwiched around facing four batters in the third.
In the fifth, Dalton Kearns singled on a bunt and Nutter drew a tw0-out walk, then Hoffman drove them both in for the 4-0 lead.
Arrington singled to lead off the sixth, then crossed two batters later on Grimm’s single.
Wahama hosts Waterford in the TVC-Hocking on Monday, as Southern does the same against South Gallia.
The Tornadoes played visiting Oak Hill on Saturday in a non-league bout.
Paul Boggs can be reached at 740-446-2342, ext. 2106
