Cincinnati Steam

Late Inning Heroics Keep Steam Perfect at Home

The Cincinnati Steam found a way to stay perfect at home on Monday night thanks to some late inning heroics by Adam Eaton and Nate Fields to defeat the Xenia Athletes in Action 5-4.

Xenia struck first in the top of the second inning with Ty Goodbar on second after a double off the wall in right; Ryan Yezak singled up the middle and the throw home from Adam Eaton was half of a step late and the Athletes in Action took an early 1-0 lead.

The Steam answered in a big way in the third inning with the first ever back-to-back homeruns in Steam history courtesy of Zach Hurley and Tommy Nurre. Hurley’s shot was pounded over the chain-link monster in right field and Nurre’s cleared the wall in left field to give the Steam a 2-1 lead.

Xenia answered in the top of the fourth inning. With Matt Creel aboard via a single, Case Rigby doubled to right-centerfield bringing in Creel all the way from first base tying the score at 2 a piece. Ty Goodbar reached on a Brian Sand walk, advanced to 2^nd as a result of a wild pitch and then took 3^rd on a passed ball. Ryan Yezak grounded out to third base, but did enough to bring in Goodbar from 3^rd, reclaiming the lead for Xenia 3-2.

Matt Creel found himself on first again in the top of the eighth inning after a single to center. A groundball to third basemen Brad Gschwind forced a throwing error, allowing Case Rigby to reach 1^st and Creel to advance to 3^rd. Ty Goodbar continued his good night plating Creel with a sac fly to right-center extending the lead to 4-2.

The Steam answered in their half of the inning. Steve Brown walked and an error by shortstop Andrew Page allowed Brandon Besl to reach base. Billy O’Conner came up with runners on first and second and two out; he poked one down the first baseline plating both runners and tying the score at 4.

Eric Braeckel got the Steam out of the top half of the ninth inning and the Steam bats did the rest of the work. An Adam Eaton triple to deep left-center set up Nate Fields for the game winning single to left field, scoring Eaton and keeping the Steam’s perfect home record in tact, beating Xenia 5-4.

Eric Braeckel got the win for the Steam improving his record to 2-1 and Ben Young took the loss knocking him to 1-1 on the season.

The Steam will be back in action Wednesday night at Western Hills High School to take on the Delaware Cows with the first pitch at 7:05.

WP – Braeckel (2-1) LP – Young (1-1)

Athletes in Action 010 200 010 4 7 1
Steam 002 000 021 5 9 1

Hitting Leaders:
Steam – Hurley (2-4, HR, 1 rbi) O’Conner (2-4, 2 rbi) Nurre (1-4, HR)
Athletes in Action – Creel (2-4, 2 runs) Goodbar (1-1, 1 run, 1 rbi)