The team that has been arguably the best in the Ohio Valley League throughout the 2021 season continued their trek to the league’s best regular-season record Wednesday night. The Full Count Rhythm had a fast start and a strong finish as they took down the Hoptown Hoppers 8-3 at Christian County High School.
The Rhythm got to rockin and rollin early. Two of the first three batters in the game reached base for Full Count, one by error and one by walk. Both of those came back to bite the Hoppers in a big way when Matthew Batts took the first pitch he saw from Jonathan Beymer and planted it in the tree to the left of the scoreboard, putting the Rhythm up 3-0 despite only having one hit in the inning.
Full Count added another run in the top of the second, this time without a hit at all. After a walk, a hit batter, and a sac fly, the Rhythm executed a double steal of second and home to extend their lead to 4-0.
After that, Beymer got settled in for the Hoppers, setting down 9 of the next ten batters he faced, keeping Hoptown within shouting distance until they could get the bats going. Beymer would finish his night after 5 2/3-innings, giving up only three more hits the rest of his night.
The Hoppers would take a bite out of the lead in the bottom of the 5th inning with a two-out rally. Hoptown opened the inning with a single from Jojo Cruz. After back-to-back outs, Noah Brown came up with an RBI single for the Hoppers’ first run of the night. Brown would later score on a wild pitch to make it 4-2 after five.
The Hoppers would get even closer in the bottom of the sixth. Tanner Holliman would come up with a two-out double to score Jojo Cruz, and suddenly Hoptown was down only one heading into the final three innings of the game.
That would be as close as the Hoppers would get, however. The Rhythm officially slammed the rally door in the top of the 8th, plating four runs to extend the lead back out to 8-3. Most of the damage in the inning was done on back-to-back doubles from Full Count’s Carlos Lara and Travis Reaves that scored three runs.
The Hoppers were paced by Noah Brown and Tanner Holliman, who had two hits and one RBI each.
Jonathan Beymer was tagged with the loss for the Hoppers. He went 5 2/3, giving up four runs, three of them earned on four hits, striking out seven and walking three.
