Photo by Kim North Martins Ferry first baseman Mike Goff somehow kept his foot on the bag to record an out against Barnesville Wednesday high atop the Purple City. However, the Shamrocks extended their win streak to nine games with a 7-4 victory.

MARTINS FERRY – Barnesville extended its winning streak to nine straight Wednesday night by being opportunistic and using a gutsy pitching effort in high school baseball action.

The Shamrocks (9-1) took advantage of five errors by Martins Ferry (6-4) in a 7-4 victory high atop the Purple City.

“It wasn’t one of our better efforts, but we’ve won when we’ve played flawless baseball and we’ve won by coming from behind at Cambridge,” veteran Barnesville head coach D.J. Butler said. “We found another way to win today, so, hopefully, winning that way will help us when tournament time rolls around.”

Barnesville lost its season-opener to western Belmont County rival Union Local, but Butler said the winning streak has been a result of several factors.

“Just having great kids. The 15-16 kids that we travel with are all good kids and ready to contribute,” Butler added. “We rotate our DHs around and those guys when they are not DHing are up on the dugout railing cheering on their teammates. Guys like Jaxton Swallie who pinch hit today got a big single for us. We’ve also received gutty performances from our pitches.”

The Shamrocks scored four times in the top of the third on three hits and a like number of errors by the Purple Riders.

“It wasn’t a good outing. I don’t know if pathetic would describe it, but it wasn’t pretty,” veteran Martins Ferry head coach Anthony Reasbeck said. “We didn’t play well, and sometimes we were borderline dumb and didn’t do the little things that we needed to to win. We gave them 3-4 runs on errors and then you look and we got beat by three.

“That was not a good performance by the Purple Riders, but we just have to turn the page and move on,” Reasbeck added. “One of the best coaches that I’ve been around, Bill Bruney. When his binder closed, everything was over. We’re going to close the binder and get on to Friday.”

Barnesville senior Dylan Blon picked up the win with six strikeouts and three walks in four-plus innings. Keegan Martin relieved and fanned one. They teamed on a five-hitter.

“Dylan didn’t have his best stuff today, but he still threw very well,” Butler said of his left-handed ace who is committed to Marietta University and holds the Barnesville career win record-holder with 19. “But you don’t have your best every time you take the mound. He got us to Keegan (Martin) and Keegan does what he does, throws strikes.”

Barnesville banged out nine singles, with Aidan Caldwell collecting a pair. Blake Burkhart, Blon and Parker Sobutka had RBI singles.

Eli Smith singled and doubled to drive in a pair of runs for Martins Ferry. Mike Goff and Maurice Barnett had RBI groundouts.

The same two teams meet at Memorial Park in Barnesville on Friday.