MAYNARD — Good pitching will beat good hitting a good majority of the time. Friday night was one of those occasions as the Ohio Valley Baseball League began play.

Justin Retzer, a recent graduate of West Liberty University, retired the first 13 batters he faced in pitching Maynard to a 3-0 victory over visiting Shadyside in a rematch of last year’s OVBL championship series on Firemen’s Field inside the Community Park. The Ford City, Pa., native allowed only a one-out triple to Tyler Ramsay in the fifth as he fanned eight and didn’t walk a batter in six innings of work.

“I had a blast. It was fun,” Retzer, who was 7-3 for the Hilltoppers this season, said. “To come out here and compete against some of my former (college) teammates was fun. I knew they were going to go up there and battle. That gave me a little more incentive to pitch better.”

Former WLU teammate Mitch Viakley finished up. The Weirton native allowed one hit and walked one.

“Justin did a great job. That’s what we expected from him,” Maynard manager Laney Simone Sr. said. “Both pitchers pitched well. They (Shadyside) had one bad inning and we took advantage of it.”

Maynard (1-0) scored all of its runs in the bottom of the third inning after the first two batters were retired. Cody Goletz led off with a single and went to second on a passed ball. Mackenzie Koehler lofted a high flyball down the leftfield line that Shadyside (0-1) shortstop Jared Clovis tried to track down after a long run, but the ball glanced off his glove as Goletz scored. Tim Mirandy’s single to left moved Koehler to second and he raced home on Dustin Hynes base hit through the left side. Left-handed hitting Ryan Jarvie slapped a single through the hole at short as Mirandy crossed the plate to make it 3-0.

Retzer fanned the side in the third and only allowed four balls out of the infield before Ramsay sent a 1-1 pitch to deep right-center for his three-bagger. A groundout ended the inning.

Viakley set down the first two batters he faced before Hunter Westlake sliced a ball down the rightfield line that went for a double. After a walk to Ramsay, Viakley struck out the next batter to end the game.

“It’s early in the season and we probably won’t have to face that pitcher again,” Shadyside player/manager Logan Hudson said of Retzer. “We will see these guys five more times. We’re looking forward to it. I think we have the two best teams in the league. They’ve got a good team. We’ve got a good team.”

According to Retzer, he is awaiting a call from a team in southern West Virginia that plays in a summer collegiate league.

Cody McCormick was the tough-luck loser for the Casketmakers. He went the distance, striking out three and issuing one free pass. He scattered nine hits, with four coming in the three-run third.

Hynes led the Maynard offense with three singles.

The Barton at Wheeling contest was not played at Patterson Field in Elm Grove due to wet grounds. It will be made up on Monday, June 4.

“This part of the season it’s hard unless kids have come directly from college to swing a good bat,” Simone Sr. said. “You can take all the batting practice you want, but it’s all about getting into the game and facing live pitching.