Jim Walker

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

 

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Maybe Daniel Rutherford ought to change the spelling of his name to “Rougherford.”

Rutherford made it rough on the Cross Lanes Christian Trojans with a three-hitter as the Coal Grove Hornets picked up a 7-0 win on Saturday.

Rutherford struck out 11 and walked just one in going the distance.

“Daniel threw well. He located the ball real well,” said Coal Grove Hornets’ coach Dean Mader. “We played pretty solid defense. We made two mistakes, but other than that we made a lot of nice plays.”

Coal Grove (3-1) had eight hits with Rutherford going 2-for-4 and Sean Paulus 2-3 with a double.

The Hornets snapped a scoreless tie with three runs in the third inning.

Jacob Clark walked, stole second, Rutherford singled and Jacob Clark had a two-run double. Paulus followed with an RBI double.

The lead went to 4-0 in the fourth inning when Isaiah Gunther walked, stole second and rode home on Rutherford’s base hit.

Coal Grove capped the scoring with three runs in the fifth inning.

Pierce was safe on an error, Paulus singled, passed ball moved the runners up and Cole Gannon hit a sacrifice fly.

Jeb Jones had an RBI ground out.

Dylan Malone walked, Gunther was safe on an error to put runners on the corners. Gunther stole second and Malone came home on the throw to second base.

Coal Grove hosts South Point on Monday in an Ohio Valley Conference game.

Cross Lanes 000 000 0 = 0 3 4

Coal Grove 003 130 x = 7 8 2

Christian Kennedy, Zach Matheny (6) and Josh Dolin. Daniel Rutherford and Jesse Rigsby. W-Rutherford (K-11, BB-1). L-Kennedy. Hitting—CLC: Timothy Zuspan 1-2, Zach Matheny 1-3, Josh Dolin 1-3 2B; CG: Jacob Clark 1-3, Daniel Rutherford 2-4 rbi-2, Jacob Pierce 1-2 rbi-2 2B, Jacob Myers 1-1, Sean Paulus 2-3 2B, Jeb Jones 1-3, Dylan Malone 1-2.