By JIM WALKER

jim.walker@irontontribune.com

MASON — There’s no truth to the rumor that the Graham Falcons’ bats were either wearing glasses or contact lenses.

In a frustration series of hits, the Falcons hit the ball softly but accurately into open spots as they beat the Ironton Fighting Tigers 5-1 in the Division 5 Region 20 championship game on Wednesday.

“Never have I seen that many hard hit balls right at guys like today by us and all their runs came from seeing eye hits that gave them their runs except the error we made in the first inning,” said Ironton head coach John Hunt.

Ironton (19-4) went on top in the first inning with two outs as Ian Ginger tripled and Jacob Hughes singled him home.

Graham (23-10) came right back and tied the game in the bottom of the inning.

With one out, Zach Wheeland walked, was sacrificed to second by Holden Durham, took third on a stolen base and came home on an overthrow in the past.

The score remained tied until the Falcons scored 4 runs in the fourth inning to take a 5-1 lead.

With one out, Adam Levy and Breyton Reisinger both singled and Jack Trayler’s sacrifice bunt was misplayed for an error to load the bases.

Dylan LaFollette singled for a run  and Brody Jenkins and Brody Jenkins had RBI singles and Owen Powell hit a sacrifice fly for the final run.

“I kept waiting for it to change because it usually does throughout a game, but it never did. We hit ball after ball hard but right at them. That’s baseball,” said Hunt.

Ginger pitched well in defeat. He worked six innings allowing six hits, three earned runs while striking out six and walking three.

Hughes finished 2-3 with an RBI for Ironton while Baker, Tanner Kleinman and Ginger were all 1-3. Ginger had a triple for the game’s only extra base hit.

Falcons’ pitcher Adam Levy went the distance giving up five hits, an earned run with eight strikeouts and one walk.

Traylor and LaFollette and each 1-2 for Graham while Jenkins, Reisinger and Vanhhoose.

The regional runner-up was Ironton’s deepest tournament run in 22 seasons and came in Hunt’s first season as a head coach.

“I think there is definitely a renewed enthusiasm for baseball and now that I know the players better, I know what I will tell each player to work on through the winter. We should be in a better position to start next year than we were this year,” said Hunt.

Ironton 100 000 0 = 1 5 3

Graham 100 400 x = 5 6 1

Ian Ginger and Jacob Hughes. Adam Levy and Zach Wheeland. W–Levy (IP-7.0, H-5, R-1, ER-1, K-8, BB-1). L–Ginger (IP-6.0, H-6, R-5, ER-3, K-6, BB-3). Hitting–Ironton: Ian Ginger 1-3 3B, Jacob Hughes 2-3 RBI, Braydon Baker 1-3, Tanner Kleinman 1-3; St. Paris Graham: Adam Levy 1-2, Breyton Reisinger 1-3, Jack Traylor 1-2, Dylan LaFollette 1-2 RBI, Brody Jenkins 1-3 RBI, Hayden Vanhoose 1-3 RBI.