Clover Hill took advantage of nine Shenandoah errors to roll past the Indians, 12-0, in a slaughter-rule shortened seven-inning contest Saturday at Buck Bowman Park.
The win allowed the Bucks (who also slaughter-ruled Montezuma, 11-1, Sunday) to stay in a first-place tie in the Rockingham County Baseball League with Stuarts Draft, which also moved to 18-3 with a victory over Elkton Sunday.
Against the Indians, the Bucks got a solid pitching effort from righty starter Kevin Chandler and right-handed reliever Josh Reese.
Chandler, who is a rising sophomore at Bridgewater College, allowed a two-out single by Michael Wade in the first, but induced cleanup hitter Wes Sheler to ground out to second to keep the Indians off the scoreboard.
Shenandoah starter Chris Hilbert also worked a scoreless first frame, by getting Aaron Lough to ground into a fielder's choice — on a nice play by Wade at shortstop, who threw out Easter at the plate on a Lough's one-out groundball — and a flyout from J.R. Rohrbough.
Hilbert, however, was not able to escape trouble in the Bucks' half of the second. Dustin Bowman and James Lucas reached on back-to-back errors, followed by a sacrifice bunt from Chris Cofer. Hilbert was then unable to get a handle on Terrell Thompson's ground ball back to the mound, loading the bases with one out. Easter followed with a broken bat two-run single to shallow left, with Thompson scoring when the ball got away in the outfield.
Lough later added a three-run home run to left for a 6-0 lead.
The margin jumped to 9-=0 in the third, when Simmers tallied a sacrifice fly and Addison Bowman blasted a two-run home run to left off reliever David Comer.
Shenandoah's best chance to score against Chandler came in the fifth, when Jesse Sampson recorded a one-out single, but was erased on a fielder's choice from Hilbert. Randy Groves then singled to left, but Chandler got John Morris to ground out to end the inning.
While Comer held the Bucks in check in the fourth and fifth frames, the Indians left one runner on in the sixth against Reese, who will likely be on of the top starters next season for Turner Ashby.
The Bucks got a bases-loaded walk by Joseph Lucas, a RBI groundout from Simmers and a sacrifice fly from Addison Bowman to move the lead to 12-0 in the bottom of the sixth, before the Indians threatened to break the shutout in the top of the seventh.
Comer and Sampson tallied consecutive singles to open the frame against Reese, before back-to-back strikeouts of Hilbert and Groves. Morris also struck out, but advanced to first when the ball bounced away behind home plate — loading the bases for Shenandoah.
Reese, however, got Wade to fly out to left to end the contest.
Chandler (5 IP, 0 R, 5 H, 0 BB, 3 K) picked up the win to move to 4-2. Hilbert, who allowed six runs (all unearned) on just one hit over two innings took the loss.
Easter had two hits and two RBIs, while Bowman hit his third home run of the year and had three RBIs for the Bucks. Lough had three RBIs with his second home run of the season.
Sampson went 3-for-3 to lead Shenandoah, which also got two hits from Wade.
