No. 1 Fairfield Union 3, No. 9 Circleville 2
ATHENS — Circleville out-hit its opponent but came up a run short as the Tigers fell 3-2 to Fairfield Union in a Southeast District Division IV semifinal at Ohio University Saturday.
Circleville had nine hits in the game, led by Glavine Bigam, Chase Foster and Miles Rickard who each had two, which included a double.
With only three hits Saturday, Fairfield Union took advantage of Circleville errors.
The Falcons’ Ashton Waldrop opened the bottom of the first reaching on error. An error on a pickoff throw allowed Waldrop to move to second. He went to third on a groundout and scored on a misplayed fly ball.
All three of Fairfield Union’s hits came in the third inning, and with two outs.
Alex Burke singled and Garrett Dilcher drew a walk. Tucker Wolfe singled to center to score Burke. The ball was misplayed, allowing Dilcher to score as well for a 3-0 lead. Colton Borah added another single before the inning came to an end.
The Tigers got on the board in the fourth with Hudson Phalin opening the inning by reaching on an error followed by Jack Kline hitting a single. After a fly out, Rickard hit a ground ball to third where the third baseman stepped on the bag for the force but then made a bad throw in trying to turn two which allowed Kline to hustle around for Circleville’s first run.
Circleville threatened in the fifth when Bigam hit a one-out single and Zack Bell and Kiser Cassidy followed with walks to load the bases. A fly ball to shallow center brought about the second out and wasn’t deep enough for the runners to advance. The inning ended on a ground ball to short where the shortstop was able to get to second base ahead of the runner for the third out.
Circleville came through again in the sixth as Foster led off with a double to right and Rickard followed with a double to left center that went all the way to the wall allowing Foster to score.
A few moments later though, Rickard was picked off second for the inning’s first out. A grounder brought about the second out. Jacob Cross came in and delivered a pinch-hit single to keep the inning going and Bigam followed by smacking one just inside the line past first base for a double. A fly ball to center ended the threat.
Circleville put a runner in scoring position in its final at-bat as Phalin drew a one-out walk and Foster hit a two-out single, but a strikeout ended the game.
Bigam went all six innings for the Tigers. He allowed three hits, walked three, gave up two earned runs and struck out four.
Eli Wolfe started for the Falcons and went 4.1 innings for the win allowing one unearned run on four hits with three walks and six strikeouts. Cameron Silcott finished the game allowing one earned run on five hits with two walks and two strikeouts.
Circleville finished the season with a 14-15 record and was fourth in league play with a 5-7 mark.
Fairfield Union sits at 20-6 on the season. This was the third time this season FU came out on top in matchups with the Tigers as the Falcons were Mid-State League champs at 11-1.
The top-seeded Falcons will return to Ohio University Tuesday at 6:30 to take on No. 4 Gallia Academy (a 5-2 winner over McClain) for a district title.