The Paducah Chiefs are officially the hottest team in the Ohio Valley League. Taking advantage of some pitching and fielding struggles for the Hoptown Hoppers, the Chiefs rolled to a 10-2 win Saturday night at Christian County High School.
The win was the 10th straight for Paducah and kept the Chiefs in second place in the OVL standings.
The Hoppers were in a cooperative spirit Saturday night, with the pitching staff giving up 12 walks and 5 hit batters. The defense was also in a giving mood, being charged with three errors for the game.
Paducah scored a run in the top of the second off a walk, a hit batter, a single, and a wild pitch to make it 1-0. The lead grew to 2-0 in the top of the third as the Chiefs used three walks and a hit batter to score their second run of the night.
It could have been even worse for the Hoppers as the Chiefs left 8 runners on base over the first three innings, including leaving the bases loaded in the second and third innings.
It was a tough outing for Hoppers’ starter Cody Jones, who threw 89 pitches in just three innings of work. He gave up just one hit, but walked seven and hit two batters as Paducah took the early lead.
The Chiefs added a run in the top of the fifth inning when former Lyon County standout Gunnar Bingham scored on a single off the bat of T.K. Madera to make it 3-0. Bingham had stolen both second and third base before the hit.
In the seventh, two hit batters and a Hopper error opened the door for Paducah to score five runs and blow the lead out to 8-0. The big hit in the inning was a two-run double from Bingham.
The Hoppers avoided the shutout by scoring a run in the seventh, taking advantage of a Paducah error to score the run.
Paducah responded with two more runs in the top of the 8th on a double from Joey Ruiz.
In the bottom half of the 8th, the Hoppers got an RBI double from Konnor Scheidt to make it 10-2.
For the game, the Hoppers actually outhit the Chiefs 7 to 4.
Myles Denton led the Hoppers, going 2-3 in the game. Konnor Scheidt and Evan Cardwell were each 1-4 with an RBI.
Nile Adcock gave the Chiefs a big night on the hill, going seven innings, giving up one unearned run, on six hits, striking out four and walking one.
