Whenever Defiance and Shawnee get together on the baseball diamond, you can bet it's going to be close. Tuesday's fracas at Booster Field at Defiance was no exception.

For the third time in four seasons, the Bulldogs (19-1, 6-0 WBL) found a way to defeat the Indians (10-14, 6-3 WBL) by the score of 1-0, as senior righty Anthony Kidston threw a no-hitter and drove in the winning run in the Western Buckeye League victory.

"Throwing a no-hitter is great, but to me it's all about coming out here to compete," said Kidston who improved to 6-0 on the year. "At this point of the season, I'm just trying to get better so I can help this team win."

The victory pushed the WBL streak for Defiance (ranked No. 1 in the state in Division II in the latest Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association poll) to 56 games. With just three league games left, DHS is gunning for its sixth consecutive outright title.

"I think both teams take this matchup seriously and both teams know when you come to the ballpark, you're facing a very good opponent," commented Shawnee coach Chad Spencer. "It's fun, it's good baseball, but obviously we'd like to win one once in awhile."

Defiance mentor Tom Held admitted he has nothing but respect for Spencer's program.

"It's two very good programs that like to compete," said Held about the matchup. "Shawnee always has good pitching and coach Spencer does a tremendous job with that program. It's pretty crazy the score has been 1-0 like that three of the last four years, luckily we've been the team to come out on top in those games."

With Shawnee finishing with no hits and only getting a pair of baserunners, behind a 13-strikeout, one-walk performance by Kidston, only run was needed to get the win. The Bulldogs, who had numerous chances throughout the contest, finally broke through in the bottom of the sixth.

Jacob Moore walked to start the bottom of the sixth on the seventh free pass given Shawnee junior Cory Wilder, who had pitched himself out of jams most of the day. With one out, Wilder tried to pick off Moore, but the throw was low and got past first baseman Zach Bailey, allowing Moore to race all the way to third.

After Dom Romero coaxed a full-count walk, Wilder struck out Austin Hancock for the second out, but the ball was in the dirt, allowing Romero to race to second. With first base open, Kidston, Defiance's leading hitter, stepped up to the plate. The Indians elected to pitch to the senior, despite the fact he had beaten them last season on a solo-home run in the seventh inning at Shawnee.

The DHS senior delivered again, this time with a slow-roller up the middle. Shawnee shortstop Trevor Anderson got to the ball, but he slipped on the play, allowing Moore to score the winning run after Kidston reached safely with no throw to first.

"I thought for sure they would walk Anthony ... I told Joe (Gentile, the next DHS batter), 'you're up,'" said Held. "They elected to pitch to him and it worked out well for us. I was shocked (they pitched to him) to be honest."

Said Kidston: "I was hoping they were going to pitch to me, I wasn't sure if they would or not. I was able to get the ball up the middle, I hit it off the end of the bat and the cap came flying off when I hit it. I knew it was a slow roller, I was just hoping to beat it out."

Spencer, who saw his righty battle to keep DHS off the scoreboard the whole game, knew his team had been living on the edge with the Bulldogs stranding 10 baserunners.

"We did a good job of dancing on the edge there for awhile, but if you dance there too long, you might slip at some point," Spencer said. "That's what happened in the sixth."

Kidston gave up a lead-off walk to start the seventh to Kyle Miller, but the righty struck out Wilder and Trey Runneals before inducing a roller to Moore at short, who flipped to Hancock at second for the final out.

"I can't wait to look at the chart and see how many strikes Anthony threw today. I'd bet it was close to 70 percent," concluded Held about Kidston's second no-no this season (Kidston also threw a no-hitter against Delta). "He was able to command all three of his pitches, he kept the ball down and he was just very dominant. What makes it more special is he did in a 1-0 win where he had the game-winning hit."

Kidston finished with a single and double for Defiance, which is back in action on Thursday at Parkway at 5 p.m.