Glen Este is champion of the Fort Ancient Valley Conference East Division baseball competition. Team members are Anthony Clark, Corey Goedde, Pate Winegardner, Michael Kennedy, Matt Jones, Zach Mager, Chris Linneman, Collin Pitman, and John Abrams, seniors; Nate Boston, Daniel Brock, Ryan Fuller, Adam Heming, Heath Blandford, and Michael School, junior†s; Austin Rieck, Austin Istvan, and Ryan Henning, sophomores; and Tyler Burdick, freshman.
Glen Este clinched a least a co-championship in the Fort Ancient Valley Conference East Division with an convincing 8-3 victory over the visiting Anderson Redskins.

The Trojans played a good host letting their guests score the first run in the first inning after two outs when the ‘Skins hit a double and single back-to-back.

The Glen Este offense came to life in the third inning when it tallied four runs. Anthony Clark, a senior who recently signed a letter-of-intent to continue his education and baseball career at Miami University -Hamilton, walked, followed by Austin Reick’s single, a walk to Matt Jones, and after a strike out, Tyler Burdick drove in the tying run on a fielder’s choice. Then came the big blow, junior catcher Heath Blanford’s three-run home run blast that easily cleared the left field fence.

Pete Winegardner had been easily in control of the Hamilton countians throughout the game and then in the bottom of the fourth, GE added on another four runs.

Collin Pitman singled and Nate Boston sacrifice bunted him to second base before Clark legged out an infield hit. Rieck batted in a run on a sacrifice fly followed by an RBI single off the bat of Jones. Ryan Henning put himself on base with a single just before a two-base error by Anderson that was created by the hard hitting of Burdick that bought in two more runs for the Clermont countians.

Winegardner continued to keep the enemy off the base paths until the top of the sixth when Anderson did manage to add two runs to its total.

Weingardner pitched an impressive 5.2 innings striking out nine adversaries, walking just one, and hitting another. He was very capably relieved by Linnemen who also kept the Redskins in check.

Winegardner, a senior, has recently signed a letter-of-intent to also study and play baseball at Miami University – Hamilton, the same college choice for Linneman.

Their efforts and that of a very strong offensive showing enabled Glen Este to avenge its only loss in the Fort Ancient Valley Conference East Division.

Jones had two hits to go along with the three runs batted in coming off Blanford’s four-sacker. Clark scored two runs to lead GE in that statistic.

Said Trojan head coach Mike Hatfield, “At the beginning of the season we talked about goals and how hard we would have to work and to keep working harder to achieve our goals. These are great kids and I am very fortunate to have good coaches like Bill Boston and Chris Fuller. It really paid off that the kids bought in to what we wanted.”