With the Ohio Valley League regular season winding down, the Madisonville Miners maintained their hold on the top spot in the standings with an 11-1 victory over the visiting Hoptown Hoppers on Wednesday.
Madisonville improved to 23-15 with its third victory in a row while handing the Hoptown a second straight defeat to leave the Hoppers in 4th place at 17-19 ahead of a road matchup with the Paducah Chiefs on Thursday.
Already leading 1-0 on Preston Bedford’s RBI single in the 2nd, the Miners pushed five runs across in both the 3rd and 4th innings to put the game out of reach. Fred Fernandez singled in a run, Nazhir Bergen drove in three runs with a bases-loaded triple in the 3rd, and Bergen capped a five-RBI night with a two-run double in the 4th. Cason Troutman’s RBI single made it 11-0 to round out the scoring for the Miners.
The Hoppers’ lone run came in on Caden Buxton’s RBI single in the top of the 7th. Hadley Smith finished 3/3 at the plate to account for half of the Hoppers’ hits.
Peyton Armour suffered the loss for Hoptown, allowing nine earned runs on eight hits with a pair of walks and a strikeout over three innings. Aaditya Sur worked three frames in relief, giving up two runs, one earned, on four hits with a walk and a strikeout.
Bergen led the way with three hits for the Miners, and Pete Britton and Brayden Taylor each hit safely twice. Taylor also picked up the win on the mound, scattering four hits over five scoreless innings with a walk and three strikeouts.
Madisonville will hit the road on Thursday to face the 2nd-place Henderson Flash.
