Lima Oh.- In action from the first round of the 8 team double elimination tournament being held at Grand Lake and Lima, the Cincinnati Steam went on an offensive explosion with 18 hits to defeat the Granville Settlers 13-2 at Shawnee HS in Lima. 

The Steam held off a potential top of the first inning attack when starting pitcher Matt Marksbury induced the Settlers to hit into a key inning ending double play groundout, thus allowing the Steam to come to bat in the bottom of the first.

And did the Steam bats come out smoking on this 95+ degree August day, exploding for 5 runs in their half of the first. The bottom of the first was capped off with a 2 run home run by left fielder Zach Hurley.

From this point on Cincinnati never looked back. The Steam scored 5 in the first, 2 in the second, 4 in the fourth and an additional run in each of the fifth and eight innings. Granville’s lone runs came in the third inning off starter and winner Matt Marksbury. Matt went 7 innings allowing 5 hits, 2 runs, 1 earned, 4 strikeouts, 3 walks and 3 hit batters.

Offensively for the Steam, all of Cincinnati’s starters got hits. But Tony Kennedy and Brandon Besl led the way. Kennedy went 4-5 on the day with a double, an RBI, scored 3 runs and stole a base. Brandon Besl went 5-5 with a double and drove in 4 runs, while scoring 3 of his own. Additionally Zach Hurley went 2-5 with the aforementioned first inning home run, driving in 3. Drew Roberts went 2-5 with a double and drove in 2 runs of his own. Kory Lonergan, Josh Harrison and Steve Brown all scored 2 runs each.

The Steam advance to Thursday’s next round in the winner’s bracket to face the host and #2 seed Lima Locos at 4pm at Shawnee HS. If the Steam win that game they move to Friday’s winners bracket final at 4pm at Shawnee HS, if the Steam lose to Lima at 4pm, they would come right back and play in the losers bracket at 7pm against the winner of Granville and Lake Erie