In his final start on the year due to innings restriction from Olney Central College, Jake Hansen did not finish his season strong. He went just four innings, giving up nine hits and nine runs, seven of them earned, while also walking four.

With Hansen’s last game of the season behind him, Coach Austin Dunfee puts his summer as a pitcher into perspective.

“He didn’t have his best stuff this summer, but he’s a young guy,” he said. “That stuff will come. He’s still a junior college kid, so he’s in the learning process. He just needs to command the strike zone a little bit better.”

Southern Ohio jumped out to the lead first, as Sesbastian Fabik scored on a throwing error in the first inning. Following that, Phillip had a two-RBI single that made it a 3-0 game.

Xenia added two in the bottom half of the first, but the Copperheads responded in the second with a Fabik RBI single to make it a 4-2 game.

The Scouts would score seven unanswered starting in the bottom of the second as they drove in two on an RBI single. Xenia would score two in the third and then three in the fourth to make it a 9-4 game.

After a Zion Avery double made it a 9-5 game in the fifth, Tanner Glass came in to pitch the rest of the game for the Copperheads. Glass pitched four innings of scoreless and hitless baseball. Dunfee was impressed with his ability to come in and give the offense a chance to claw back into the game.

“He comes into a tough spot… pretty quickly, it felt like it was churning in their direction,” Dunfee said. “(Glass) put a stop to that and gave us a chance, with plenty of time in the ballgame, to make a push at the end of it.”

The push Dunfee refers to came in the top of the ninth. Southern Ohio have the bases loaded with two outs and just scored a run thanks to a Zach Iverson walk and are looking to at least tie it up. 

Fabik, who is one of the best hitters in the league, comes up to the plate but is not able to deliver. Dunfee, while disappointed in the result, knows that was a perfect scenario to complete the comeback and it just did not fall in their favor.

The Copperheads look to rebound from the loss while also gaining ground in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League South division when they travel to Cincinnati to take on the Steam (17-10). First pitch at McLeary Field on Friday is scheduled at 7:05 p.m.