Jim Walker
jim.walker@irontontribune.com

PORTSMOUTH — Pitching and defense.
Those two elements are key in baseball and they were the difference on Wednesday as the Symmes Valley Vikings beat the Portsmouth Notre Dame Titans 3-1 in a Southern Ohio Conference game.
Devin Renfroe and Layken Gothard combined on a three-hitter and neither walked a batter.
“Our pitchers did a nice job and threw strikes. All the pitchers tonight threw well for both teams and there weren’t very many errors. It makes for a clean game,” said Vikings’ coach Chad Renfroe.
“We didn’t have many hits but we made them count.”
The Vikings took a 2-0 lead in the first inning.
Gothard singled, stole second and went to third on a throwing error. Hunter Adams then hit a sacrifice fly.
Nick Klaiber walked, stole second and Austin Mannon had a run-scoring single.
Notre Dame got a run in the third but the Vikings added an insurance run in the seventh when Gothard singled, went to third on an error and scored on a passed ball.
The Vikings host Green on Friday.
Sym. Valley 200 000 1 = 3 3 1
Notre Dame 001 000 0 = 1 3 2
Devin Renfroe, Layken Gothard (4) and Derik Brace. Schmidt and Kammer. Renfroe (IP-3.1 H-3, ER-1, K-2, BB-0). Gothard (IP-3.2, K-5, BB-0). L-Schmidt. Hitting-SV: Layken Gothard 2-4, Austin Mannon 1-3; PND: C.J. Corns 1-3, Nichols 1-3, McGuire 1-3.