The Hoptown Hoppers are in the Ohio Valley League Championship for the sixth time in eight seasons after beating Paducah 5-3 Tuesday to win their West Division series. The Hoppers will meet Dubois County in the championship.
One night after Drew McGowan went seven strong innings to beat the Chiefs in the opener, Chandler Kendall pitched six innings of five-hit baseball and struck out 10. He allowed just two earned runs. Brennan Crooms pitched a scoreless ninth inning for the save.
Ben Huber followed singles by Drew McGowan and Micah Genter with a single of his own to give the Hoppers a first inning 2-0 lead.
In the third inning, Jacob Jenkins walked, went to second on a single by Huber, and scored on a Cameron Hill groundout for a 3-0 Hopper lead.
Paducah got a run back in the third inning on two walks and a fielder’s choice.
Jenkins smacked his sixth home run in the fifth inning to give the Hoppers a 4-1 lead.
The Chiefs got single runs in the fifth and eighth innings to cut the Hopper lead to 4-3.
Jenkins tallied an RBI single in the ninth inning for an insurance run.
The top four batters in the Hopper lineup had nine hits and four RBIs. Huber had three hits and two RBIs, while Jenkins, McGowan, and Genter had two hits.
The Chiefs had eight hits but struck out 16 times against three Hopper pitchers.
Hoptown finished off their second straight postseason sweep and head to the OVL Championship winners of 12 of their last 14 games. They will meet Dubois County, who completed a two-game sweep of East Division champion Henderson 12-3 Tuesday.
The Hoppers last met Dubois County in the 2017 championship, won by the Bombers in two games.
The Hoppers will host Dubois County Friday in game one at Hoptown High. Game two will be Saturday at Dubois County.