By Gavin Stark | July 5, 2025

After a tough loss the night before, the Hamilton Joes bounced back in a big way with a gritty 4-3 win over the Southern Ohio Copperheads, setting up a decisive rubber match on Sunday evening.

The headline coming into the game was the much-anticipated debut of right-handed pitcher Michael Murphy, a midseason addition looking to make an immediate impact. Murphy wasted no time showing his potential, striking out two of the first three batters he faced in a scoreless opening frame. His debut was brief but promising, handing the ball off to Dean Brown to start the second inning.

In the bottom of the second Cody Miller would get things on the board for the Joes with a loud two RBI triple, scoring Denby and Melchione. Southern Ohio would respond in the third with an RBI single from Tylan Graves. Jackson Wang would make the score 3-1 in the bottom of the third with his RBI single to score Christopher Roa.

After 4.2 innings pitched Dean Brown’s night would end. Brown looked sharp during his entire outing giving up just 4 hits and 2 earned runs. Justin Hoevel was the pitcher to come in for Brown in the sixth and the first two batters he faced would get on base with a walk and a hit, but Hoevel would ultimately strikeout Haruta Endo to record the final out of the sixth inning.

Right-handed pitcher Jack Cecil would make his Joes debut in a crucial seventh inning with the game being tied at three a piece. Cecil would look fabulous going three up, three down with 2 strikeouts and a ground out. The Joes would also go three up, three down in the seventh. So, we would enter the eighth with a tie ball game still and another pitching change for the Joes, this time Sam Pece would toe the rubber looking to make it another quick top of the inning. Pece would do just that only facing three batters.

In the bottom of the eighth inning the Joes would look to add some runs and take the lead, and they would do just that following a single from the leadoff man Jackson Wang, Miguel Correa would hit a hard single that would score Wang and make the score 4-3 Joes heading into the top of the ninth.

The closing arm Matty Helms would climb the hill looking to shut the door on the Copperheads and collect a save. Helms would retire batters 1, 2, 3 to get the win for the Joes.