CRESCENT — Austin Bassa struck out four and scattered seven hits in a route-going performance as Barton won Game 1 of the Ohio Valley Baseball League championship series, 3-0, Sunday afternoon on sun-roasted Henning Field at Pramesa Park.

Bassa, a Martins Ferry product, needed just 84 pitches (60 strikes) in his second outstanding effort in a row. The hard-throwing righty went the distance against Maynard last Sunday after being off for nearly two weeks.

“I feel good. My arm feels strong,” Bassa said. “I had a lot of rest, so I feel really good.”

The best-of-5 series resumes tonight at 6 on David VanCamp Memorial Ballfield at Patterson Park in Elm Grove. Game 3 will return to Belmont County, also at 6, on Wednesday.

The top-seeded Braves (16-5) won despite hitting into four double plays in their six innings of at-bats. They also had a runner picked off.

“Austin Bassa is our ace. I’m telling you,” Barton manager Billy Timko said. “Last year Wheeling won Game 1, so nothing is over yet. Austin just shut them down today. Our sticks started to come around, but we had some blunders on the bases. That’s on me, though.”

Barton went ahead 2-0 in a strange bottom of the second. Bailey McGrath and Ryan Bernard recorded back-to-back singles and Tanner Werkmann was hit with a Matt Brooks’ pitch to load the bases. Matt Fouty dropped down a perfect suicide-squeeze bunt as McGrath scored standing up. Dmitri Collaros sent a sinking liner to left-center that looked as though it had split the outfielders. However, leftfielder John Santimarino made a diving catch and avoided a collision with centerfielder EJ Schramm. Bernard alertly tagged up at third and scored, but Werkmann was doubled off of second as the base umpire ruled he left too early on his tagup.

Anthony Zorne made it 3-0 when he sent a bomb to deep right leading off the fourth. It was the former Steubenville standout’s third dinger of the summer.

“That was a no-doubter,” Timko said of Zorne’s blast.

Bassa was so dominating that the second-seeded Cardinals (13-7) never got a runner past second base. He also helped his cause with a pair of pickoffs.

“I relied mostly on my fastball today. My change was iffy but my curveball worked pretty well,” Bassa noted. “I located my fastball the best though.”

Wheeling player/manager Ricky Szeligo said his team will come back.

“The series isn’t over until the last out of the fifth game so we’re going to come out tomorrow and hope out bats catch fire and we get a good pitching performance from whomever we decide to throw. Hats off to Barton today. They played a better game than us.”

Timko will send Bernard to the mound tonight. Parker Dyson is scheduled to throw Wednesday.