'Cheads fall by double-digits to drop series with Hamilton

HAMILTON — Sometimes it’s just simply not your night. Saturday just wasn’t Southern Ohio’s night.

Allowing six runs in the first inning alone and being scored on in each of the first four innings, the Copperheads dropped its series with Hamilton with a 12-2 mercy rule loss in seven innings on Saturday. The Joes picked up double-digit hits in the beatdown.

It was a tough start for Michael Little, who lasted just 1.2 innings and got the loss in his start for Southern Ohio. The righty allowed seven earned runs on six hits in the short outing, walking and striking out three in the process. Hayden Collins allowed three runs on four hits in just over two innings of work out of the bullpen before Ohio University’s Aiden Cooney one run and hit over the final 2.1 innings of the game.

Offensively, the Copperheads couldn’t get anything strung together, scoring just two runs for the second straight day. Case Sullivan was the only ‘Chead with a multi-hit performance, going 2-3 at the plate with a run scored. Cooper Thompson smacked the team’s lone RBI with a hit while Ben Clark, Pauly Mancino and Isaiah Malek each secured one hit.

In an absolutely disastrous start, Little allowed each of the first three runners of the game to reach base before an RBI single from Ryan Novak instantly made it a 2-0 game just four batters in. Two more run-scoring extra-base hits mixed in with a sacrifice fly later in the frame ultimately gave Hamilton a 6-0 lead going into the second inning.

After the ‘Cheads failed to cash in on an opportunity with multiple men in scoring position in that second, the Joes tacked on two more in unusual fashion. A dropped third strike with a man on third base and two outs allowed one to come home just before an error by Aiden Dunlap at third base brought in a second, extending the deficit to eight runs.

Hamilton eventually made it a nine-run lead before Southern Ohio even got on the board. The Copperheads finally made some noise in the fourth with Clark driving in and then scoring a run but it was all Southern Ohio could muster.

The Joes immediately poured on another two runs in the bottom of the frame to erase the progress before eventually walking things off in the bottom of the seventh to make the deficit double-digits and induce the mercy rule.