SHADYSIDE — It’s early in the Ohio Valley Baseball League’s 2018 season, but Barton and Shadyside hooked up in a dandy Monday night.

Veteran Logan Hudson outdueled Tyler Blomquist as the homestanding Casketmakers (1-1) evened their record with a 2-1 victory over the debuting Braves (0-1) on the sun-soaked Fleming Field diamond. All the runs were scored in the first inning before both righthanders settled into their grooves.

Barton struck first as Shane Smolenak reached on an error leading off the game. Colton Coss followed with a looping single down the right field line as Smolenak raced to third. Coss, however, was pegged out trying for second on a nice throw from Kraig Kubancik. Nico Petrides’ grounder to the right side was misplayed as Smolenak scored without a throw.

Shadyside responded in the bottom of the frame. Jared Clovis was hit-by-a-pitch leading off and Cody Hudson walked. With two outs, Tyler Ramsay sent a towering popup down the rightfield line. The ball caromed off a Barton player’s glove as Clovis and Cody Hudson both scored.

“I don’t know how this ended up a 2-1 game. We’ve both got a lot of offensive firepower,” Shadyside manager/player Logan Hudson said. He finished with four strikeouts and just one walk in throwing 82 pitches (49 strikes). He scattered half-a-dozen hits.

The contest became a pitcher’s duel after that as Blomquist retired 16 of the final 19 Casketmakers he faced. He surrendered a one-out walk and a base-on-balls with two outs in the fifth, but induced a comebacker to get out of trouble. He yielded the only hit of the game — a leadoff double to Hunter Westlake in the seventh — before getting three straight outs. He fanned five, walked four and hit one.

“Ty did an outstanding job. He got out of a couple of jams, but other than that, he was really good tonight,” Barton manager Billy Timko said of the former St. Clairsville ace. “Our defense played well behind him, too.

“Like I just told the guys, the season isn’t a sprint. It’s a marathon,” Timko continued. “This was our first game, so we’ll come back Wednesday and put it back together.”

“There really wasn’t one pitch that was working,” Logan Hudson explained. “I was more or less pitching to contact and letting my defense do its thing. I was just doing my thing and not trying to do too much.”

Shadyside turned a trio of double plays in the first four innings. A line drive doubled off a runner to end the first; an around-the-horn DP got the Casketmakers out of a two-on, no-out situation in the second; and a 1-6-3 twin killing helped them out in the fourth.