It took one bad inning to ruin the Ironton Fighting Tigers afternoon as they lost to the Spring Valley (W.

Wednesday, April 26, 2000

It took one bad inning to ruin the Ironton Fighting Tigers afternoon as they lost to the Spring Valley (W.Va.) Timberwolves 10-4 Tuesday.

An error led to six unearned runs in the third inning and another error let three more unearned runs score in the sixth.

"Spring Valley is a good team, and you can’t afford to get down six runs to a good team. It’s not impossible to come back, but it’s awful difficult," Ironton coach Mark Lewis said.

The first bad apple came in the third after two scoreless innings.

Brett Looney reached on an error to start the inning. An out later, Skyler Smith walked and then Bradley Jordan popped out for what should have been the third out.

Luke Huffman lined a single to right to score the first run. Kris Quate and Kyle Smith followed with singles and Aaron Billups blooped a double to center and it was 5-0. Drew Bailey walked and Looney singled for the final run.

"Errors are going to happen. I’m not going to blame the loss on our errors. Spring Valley was just the better team and we had to play near-perfect to beat them," said Lewis.

Ironton (7-5) came back with two runs in the bottom of the inning.

With one out, Mark Mains lined a single, Matt Johnson walked, and Drew Mains hit into a fielder’s choice. Drew Mains stole second and Josh Harmon lined a two-run single.

The Fighting Tigers got a run in the third when Clark Cooper walked, and Matt White and Mark Mains got base hits.

Spring Valley got four runs – three unearned – in the sixth to go up 10-3.

Andrew Pulley singled, Skyler Smith walked, Jordan had a sacrifice bunt, and Huffman reached on an error as a run scored. Huffman stole second and Smith scored on the play at second.

With two outs, Kyle Smith singled and Billups blooped another Texas League double as two runs scored.

The Fighting Tigers final run scored in the sixth. Mark Mains singled, moved up on a wild pitch, and came home on Drew Mains’ base hit.

Ironton had eight hits with Mark Mains going 3-3 and Chad Parker 2-4.

Billups was 2-4 with four RBI, Huffman 2-3 and two RBI, and Quate and Kyle Smith each went 2-4 as the T-Wolves collected 12 hits.

Spring Val. 006 004 0 – 10 12 0

Ironton 002 101 0 – 4 8 3

Drew Fannin, Neil Elkins (5) and Kyle Smith. Josh Harmon and Jon Sites. W-Fannin (3-K, 4-W). L-Harmon (4-K, 4-W). WP-Elkins 3. HBP-by Elkins (Jon Sites). DP-Spring Valley 2, Ironton 1. Sac-SV: Bradley Jordan. SB-SV: Andrew Pulley, Luke Huffman; Ironton: Drew Mains. 2B-SV: Bradley Jordan, Aaron Billups 2, Brett Looney; Ironton: Chad Parker. LOB-Spring Valley 7, Ironton 7. Hitting-SV: Skyler Smith 1-3, Bradley Jordan 1-4, Luke Huffman 2-3 (2 RBI), Kris Quate 2-4, Kyle Smith 2-4, Aaron Billups 2-4 (4 RBI), Brett Looney 2-4; Ironton: Drew Mains 1-3 (RBI), Josh Harmon 1-4 (2 RBI), Chad Parker 2-4, Matt White 1-3, Mark Mains 3-3 (RBI).