The opening round of the Ohio Valley League Playoffs began Friday night, as the Hoptown Hoppers played host to the Madisonville Miners in the first game of a best-of-three series. The Hoppers rode the pitching of Brian Coffey and the bat of Cole Cummings en route to a 4-1 win to take Game 1.
With their ace on the mound, Hoptown quickly took control of the game
Coffey tossed a scoreless first inning and gave Hoptown the opportunity to strike first.
The offense jumped at the first chance they got as MJ Rookard scored on a Miner error for the game’s first run.
Coffey continued to dominate on the mound as Nick Proto singled in the third to score Cummings and increase the Hopper lead, 2-0.
Defense was the story of the game as Coffey went all the way to the seventh inning, shutting out the Miners.
The crowd then rose to their feet when Cummings drilled a home run over the right field fence to also score John Michael Reed and give Hoptown a commanding 4-0 lead heading into the eighth.
The Miners managed to load the bases in the eighth but Trey Fields took over on the mound to strand all three baserunners.
Hoptown’s defense faced the same situation in the ninth but this time Hassan Westbrook stepped in and gave up just one run to a sac-fly en route to earning the save.
Coffey walked away victorious, going 7.1 innings to only give up six hits. He also fanned six to walking three.
Zach Lightsey took the loss.
Cummings has had the hot bat for the Hoppers, going yard in each of his last two outings. The OVL All-Star went 1-2 at the plate on Friday with a HR, 2 RBI, 2 walks and 2 runs scored. Proto, another hot bat of late, went 2-4 with two singles and an RBI.
The Hoppers have won six of their last seven first round playoff openers and improve to 17-12 all-time in the postseason, including 2-0 against Madisonville.
Game 2 will be played on Saturday at Elmer Kelley Stadium in Madisonville. A Hopper win will advance them to the second round, which starts on Monday. A Miner win, however, will force a pivotal Game 3 on Sunday at Colonel Field.
First pitch is set for 7 P.M.