With wind gusts wreaking havoc for pitchers and fielders alike, Defiance and Tinora battled through the conditions with the Bulldogs prevailing 11-1 at Booster Field on Monday night.

Both teams came into the game state-ranked at number two, Defiance in Division II and Tinora in Division IV.

"You always want to play good teams and Tinora (12-2) is a good team," said Defiance coach Tom Held. "It definitely makes us better to play them and this game does not reflect the kind of teams we are, 11-1 is not descriptive of this match up. I'd like to play these guys later in the year when it's 70 degrees, with normal wind and I think you'd see a great game."

The two teams struggled early on just to get a hit, but Defiance (10-1) opened the scoring first in the bottom of the third.

With one out in the inning, Jacob Moore collected the Bulldogs' first hit with a single. Joe Keween followed with a walk and Anthony Kidston loaded the bases on an error. After a fly-out for out number two, Rob Zeigler stroked a single up the left-center gap to plate Moore and Keween for a 2-0 lead. Shea Murray followed with a double to score Kidston and Nic Vittorio reloaded the bases after getting clipped by a pitch. A walk to Dom Gentile scored Zeigler and Austin Hancock cleared the bases with a single and an error for a 7-0 lead. Moore reached for his second time in the inning with an RBI double to right which scored Hancock for an eight-run inning following a strikeout which finally ended the threat.

But Tinora attempted to put a dent in the deficit in the top of the fourth as Austin Farrington and Derek Drewes started things by reaching on walks. Clay Pittman loaded the bases on an error and Defiance skipper Held made a trip to the mound to cool his starter Kidston down. Kidston struckout Nate Beck but Tyler McKenney tapped a roller down the third base line which stayed fair to allow Farrington to score Tinora's only run. Kidston was able to get out of the jam with two strikeouts to end the inning.

"I was sitting for a long time (in the third) and when I went back out I didn't feel loose," explained Kidston. "When the bases got loaded, coach (Held) came out and I settled down. He said, 'we have an eight-run lead, just settle down, we don't need everything on one pitch.'"

Tinora coach Brent Renollet felt like the game could have been different if his team could have kept the fourth-inning threat going.

"There's no doubt he's (Kidston) probably the best we're going to face all year," said Renollet. "But it did feel like a base hit would have changed the complexion of the game a little bit at that point."

For Held and the Bulldogs, shades of a year ago came to mind when Defiance was leading 7-1 in the fifth and Tinora rallied for a 9-8 victory in eight innings.

"Last year, we were up 7-1 after five and we lost," stated Held. "So until this game was over there was no way we were relaxing against a good Tinora team. They have some good hitters in their lineup that can score runs in bunches.

"I was proud of Anthony because it was a tough day to pitch with the wind and he hasn't thrown in nine days and you could tell he didn't have his good fastball. A lot of people think you'd be fresh sitting that long but actually it's opposite, the longer you sit around the harder it is to stay in top shape."

With fears of another Ram comeback in their minds, the Bulldogs got right back to work in the fourth when Kidston led off the inning with a triple to center and scored the next batter when Joe Gentile grounded to short but reached on a throwing error. Zeigler, Murray and Vittorio followed with walks to push Gentile home for a 10-1 lead. With the bases loaded and nobody out, Defiance was unable to score anymore after Tinora pitcher E.J. Kissel fanned the next three batters.

"Offensively, all year long our mental approach hasn't been good," Held explained. "We have to get better at the plate, we take too many good pitches. For example, in the fourth, we had the bases loaded nobody out with a 10-1 lead and we take six called strikes. And as a hitter you have to be focused on putting the ball in play somewhere and that's what we've been doing. We've been fortunate to have one big inning all year but our approach has to get better."

Defiance ended it in the fifth when Joe Gentile hit a double and was driven in two batters later by Murray on a sinking line drive for a base hit.

"We had three errors, some hit batsmen and a lot of walks and you can't give a team like Defiance extra chances," explained Renollet.

One area that Renollet was happy with was his pitching staff, especially Kissel's performance to end the Defiance threat in the fourth.

"He did a great job, he competed,' stated Renollet. "That's all we ask our pitchers to do and I thought they all did that. But it's a tough day out here for everyone, to play defense and to hit. I felt like we competed, we just didn't have it tonight and a lot of that is because Defiance is very good too."

Moore and Murray finished with a single and a double each while Kidston added a triple, Joe Gentile added a double and Zeigler reached four times with a single and three walks.

Kidston also picked up the win on the hill allowing one run on one hit while striking out 12 batters.

"I didn't have my best stuff but I tried to compete," Kidston concluded. "We've been able to put together one big inning in every game but we don't want to rely on that happening every game. When we need it, it may not happen for us. So, we're trying to put good swings together from the beginning to the end of the game."

Linescore

Tinora 000 10 - 1 1 3

Defiance 008 21 - 11 8 1

Records: Defiance 10-1, Tinora 12-2.

Winning pitcher: Anthony Kidston (5 innings, 1 run, 1 hit, 12 strikeouts, 3 walks).

Losing pitcher: Nate Beck (2 2/3 innings, 8 runs, 5 hits, 1 strikeout, 4 walks). Other: A.J. Fairchild, E.J. Kissel.

Leading hitters: (Tinora, 1 hit). (Defiance, 8 hits) - Jacob Moore single, double; Anthony Kidston triple; Joe Gentile double; Rob Zeigler single, 3 walks; Murray single, double.