The three key elements of baseball are pitching, defense and hitting.

The St. Joseph Flyers must have been taught well by coach Greg Bryant as they played well in all three aspects to beat the Coal Grove Hornets 6-2 Thursday.

“We had good pitching, good defense and timely hitting,” Bryant said. “Ryan (Waginger) made one bad pitch. He left one pitch up in the strike zone and that was it.

“We had some nice plays in the field. Jerrod Laber threw a guy out at home. The defense was good.”

Waginger provided the pitching with a five-hitter. He struck out five, walked two and gave up one earned run.

Coal Grove got both its runs in the first inning. With one out, Zach Murphy reached on an error and Scott Harbolt homered.

St. Joseph got a run back in the second inning.

Chad Harvey drew a one-out walk, went to second on Michael Basedow’s sacrifice bunt, stole third and came home on a wild pickoff throw.

The Flyers tied the game in the third inning when Tre’ Stambaugh, Cory Lewis and Caleb Blackburn all singled.

St. Joseph took the lead with three runs in the fifth inning.

In the fifth, Lewis reached on an error, Blackburn was hit by a pitch and Jerrod Laber had an RBI single to score pinch-runner Joey Basedow. Waginger walked, Pat Gagai was safe on an error and Ryan Schwab was hit by a pitch to force in a run.

The final run scored in the sixth when Blackburn singled, Laber hit into a fielder’s choice, Waginger walked and Harvey had a run-scoring single.

On Friday, St. Joseph (6-1) visits South Gallia and Coal Grove (2-7) plays Fairland.

Coal Grove2000000=252

St. Joseph011031x=661

Taylor Dean, Shannon Goodwin (6) and Zach Murphy. Ryan Waginger and Pat Gagai. W-Waginger (5-K, 2-BB, 1-ER). L-Dean (6-K, 6-BB, 3-ER, 5-H). HR-Coal Grove: Scott Harbolt. Hitting-Coal Grove: Zach Murphy 1-4, Scott Harbolt 1-3, Taylor Dean 1-3, Shannon Goodwin 1-3, B.J. Harbolt 1-2; St. Joseph: Tre Stambaugh 1-4, Caleb

Blackburn 1-2, Jerrod Laber 1-2, Chad Harvey 1-3, Pat Gagai 1-3.