By Dylan Hefflinger

DEFIANCE- Hits were at a minimum and strikeouts at a premium when Tinora and senior right-hander Tyler McKenney faced Fairview and senior left-hander Brett Fitzwater on Tuesday in a battle of ranked teams.

McKenney tossed a 1-hitter and Fitzwater a 2-hitter, but a costly two-out error in the bottom of the 3rd inning preceded the lone 2 Tinora hits, helping the Rams to a 2-0 victory. It pushed the Green Meadows Conference winning streak to 27 in a row for Tinora, a Division III state semifinalist a year ago that has dropped to D-IV this season.

Fitzwater, a Bowling Green recruit that consistently reached 84 mph with his fastball topping out at 88 in the fifth inning, threw 7 straight balls to open the game resulting in a walk and hit-by-pitch. But after a strikeout and double steal, the 6-3 lefty fanned the 4-5 batters in the Tinora lineup to get out of the jam.

It began a streak of 7 strikeouts in span of 8 batters before a two-out error put Derek Drewes on first in the bottom of the third. Sophomore Clay Pittman, the number 3 hitter in the Tinora lineup who came in hitting a team-high .553, then produced the first hit of the game with a hit-and-run shot down the first-baseline that resulted in a RBI triple. Nate Beck followed with the only other hit by the Rams with a run-scoring single to right.

Fitzwater fanned 10 and walked 3, while pushing his season totals to no earned runs in 33 innings with 62 strikeouts and 13 free passes.

The unsigned McKenney allowed just five base runners, retiring 10 of 11 in one stretch before Zach Batt broke up the no-hit bid with a single up the middle to lead off the Fairview 5th. McKenney, who reached a high of 85 mph, fanned 8, including 4 with an impressive curveball.

"My changeup was missing down today, so I was using my fastball early in the count," McKenney explained. "I got my curve over today. Those two were working."

Tinora (13-2), the number one team in Division IV which suffered its second loss of the season on Monday to Defiance (ranked 2nd in Division II), plays Edgerton (5-8) at home Thursday. Fairview (11-5), rated 14^th in Division III, hosts Holgate (11-4) on Thursday.