PAINTSVILLE, Ky. — The Ironton Fighting Tigers would have loved to hear the crack of the bat.

Instead, Ironton struck out 18 times and was guilty of two errors despite outhitting the Paintsville Tigers 7-to-6 as they lost 4-2 Thursday.

“Our timing was way off. Their pitcher didn’t throw hard, he just had us offstride,” Ironton coach Mark Lewis said.

“Chris Rakes pitched a heck of a game for us. I hated to waste that kind of an effort.”

Rakes struck out 10 and walked just one. Two of the runs were unearned.

Ironton (4-3) took a 2-0 lead in the first inning.

Rakes doubled, Troy Allen put down a sacrifice bunt and Chad Miller hand a run-scoring single.

Miller stole second base and T.J. Keith had an RBI single.

Keith was 3-for-3 on the day.

Paintsville (4-5) got a run in the first inning on a walk to Daniel Pugh and a triple by Corey Humphrey.

Paintsville took the lead in the third inning on doubles by Humphrey and Andrew Brown and two errors.

The final run scored in the fifth inning as Humphrey walked, moved up on an error and Grimm single.

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Chris Rakes and Dustin Preston. Shane Grimm and Corey Adams. W-Grimm (18-K, 0-BB, 1-HBP). L-Rakes (10-K, 1-BB, 2-ER). 2B-Ironton: Chris Rakes; Paintsville: Corey Humphrey. 3B-Paintsville: Corey Humphrey. Hitting-Ironton: Chris Rakes 1-4, Troy Allen 1-3, Chad Miller 1-3, T.J. Keith 3-3, J.J. Johnson 1-3; Paintsville: Corey Humphey 2-2, Andrew Brown 1-3, Shane Grimm 1-3, Corey Adams 2-3.