DANVILLE — The Fredericktown Freddies got a one-hit shutout from pitcher Justin Snyder, but they hardly needed it.
The visiting Freddies pounded out 16 hits to defeat the Danville Blue Devils, 17-0, in five innings in Friday’s Mid-Buckeye Conference baseball game.
“It’s always important to play well on the road in the MBC,” said Fredericktown coach Tom Craze. “No matter where we go, we continually talk about getting better each day and taking steps in the right direction. It doesn’t matter who you’re playing in the MBC. On the road is always difficult. Fortunately for us, we hit the ball and made the plays in the field that we needed to and come away with a good win.”
The Freddies opened with three runs in the first against Danville starter Brandon Presley. In the second, the Freddies chased Presley with seven hits and seven runs to break the game open. The Freddies hit parade was led by Kaleb Phillips, who was 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs and three runs scored. Matt Smith was also 3-for-4 with a pair of RBIs. Nash Cunningham had three RBIs on a bases-clearing triple in the second. Snyder contributed three RBIs to the cause as well, going 2-for-4.
“We just wanted to come in and play hard,” said Fredericktown’s Austin Hathaway, who was 2-for-2 with a pair of runs scored. “We’ve got to play hard against anybody in the MBC. It’s a tough conference. Our main purpose was just to get hits and try to make them make mistakes.”
Andy Payne, who was added to the team this week, came on in relief and had a couple of successful innings before he, too, was knocked out in the top of the fifth.
Snyder, who only faced 15 batters, just needed to relax, rear back and throw. He only gave up one hit to Danville’s Derek Baker in the fourth with two outs. Snyder struck out five batters and was the beneficiary of some great defense.
“I was just trying to get ahead of the batters,” said Snyder. “I just let my teammates make plays for me — especially Matt Smith making two great diving catches in centerfield.”
