By Travis Cox

Central Ohio Scout

Olentangy, Ohio - No. 12 seeded Pickerington Central faced No. 13 seeded Hilliard Darby in a Division I Central District semi-final at Olentangy High School.  The game would feature a matchup up of two of the area's top arms.

Pickerington Central sent RHP Greg Basalyga (Bowling Green commit) to the mound and Hilliard Darby countered with 2014 RHP Nate Green (Oakland commit)

Darby would strike first as unsigned senior Jake Chetock (pictured) would hit the first pitch of the up the middle with a single.  Chetock would later score on a Chris Ramsey (Valpo commit) sacrifice fly to take a 1-0 advantage. 

After a scoreless second inning by both teams, Darby added to the scoreboard when Green hit a 2-run homer to centerfield for a 3-0 lead. 

With Green cruising through the first three innings, Central finally capitalized when Devon Fisk (Bowling Green commit) reach on a single and eventually scored after outfielder Michael Barnabei reached on a error by the shortstop.

In the top of fifth inning, Darby was able to get to Pickerington Central bullpen. Chetock, Connor Holdren, Ramsey, and Stephen Hernon (Otterbein commit) hit four consecutive singles.  After an error by the leftfielder and infield single, the Panthers added four more runs with a score of 7-1.

However, the Tigers would not quit as they began to get to Green. Kyle Casserly lead off the bottom of the fifth with a single.  Kaleb Foltz and Basalyga also singled, scoring Casserly in the process.  After a walk and a Fisk single, the Tigers found themselves only trailing 7-4.

Unfortunately for Pickerington, the Darby offense was on a roll as they added four more runs in the final two frames to come away with a 11-4 win.

For Darby, Nate Green had a big day both on and off the field. The junior hit a 2-run homerun and scored two runs at the plate and struck out seven batters over five innings of work on the mound. With several colleges in attendance, Green decided after the game to end his recruitment and commit to Oakland.

Chetock was also a big contributor as he had three knocks on the day with two runs scored.

Pickerington Central finishes there season with a 19-10 record while Hilliard Darby is now 18-10 and will play Pickerington North on Wednesday at Otterbein College.

To view scouting notes from games across Ohio, please visit the Ohio High School Scouting Blog. The blog gets updated throughout the week. 

To discuss this game, please visit our partner JJHuddle.