Highland skips past Galion for season sweep on the diamond

GALION - The last two seasons, Galion and Highland's Mid-Ohio Athletic Conference series has been must watch baseball. Unfortunately for the Tigers, each of the last four meetings — including Wednesday night's clash — have ended with them coming up just short. Tuesday it was a 3-2 win for Highland thanks to two runs in the bottom of the sixth, and Wednesday it was much of the same as the Scots put up three in the top of the seventh for a 3-0 final to complete the season sweep.

MORE: Marshall Park to host Mid-Ohio Spring Classic softball tournament "Tournament atmosphere the last two nights," Galion coach Kenny Fagan said. "We knew we had some growing pains to overcome, and I thought we did a really good job competing with one of the premier programs in the area late both times. Our youthfulness catches up with us sometimes, but I'm really proud of how we played the last two days going punch-for-punch with those guys.

" Highland knew the first half of the season could be challenging after losing Zach Church and Jayden Collins — the Scots' ace and No. 2 — on the mound which led to new faces needing to step up in various positions. "Losing (them) as pitchers changes the way you prepare for the season, so we've had to change our approach on defense and we're still trying to find a little bit of our offensive identity," Highland coach Don Kline said.

"The MOAC is a league that anybody can win on any given night ... there's a lot of good athletes and a lot of good coaches, if you don't have your A-Game on any given night you're going to go home with a loss. " And that almost happened Wednesday night as both pitchers, Highland's Zach Underwood and Galion's Kane Hay, threw great and had stellar defense back them up.