Blankenship, Conn combine to one hit Buffalo

Logan's McCormick Ilderton eludes the tag of Buffalo first baseman Nate Gillispie during the third inning of the Wildcats 5-0 win over the Bison (Photo courtesy of Boothe Davis/Captured by the Moment Photography)

Bill Lusk | WVOW Sports

LOGAN   Luke Blankenship combined with Cross Conn on a one-hitter and top-seeded and second ranked Logan defeated fourth-seeded Buffalo 5-0 in the Class AA Region 4 tournament Saturday at Roger E. Field.

The Wildcats (23-2) will play second seeded and fourth ranked Charleston Catholic May 27 at 6 p.m. at Roger E. Gertz Field in game one of a best of three game championship series.

Blankenship retired 15 of the first 16 batters he faced through five innings, only allowing a base on balls to Britton Hudson leading off the third inning.

Blankenship took a no-hitter into the sixth inning before Nate Gillispie singled to lead off the sixth. Faced with a decision to take Blankenship out of the game or leave him in, Logan coach Kevin Gertz elected to leave Blankenship in the contest.

Anthony Pitchford worked the count full before grounding into a double play, however the Bison would load the bases when Caden Craig reached on a wild pitch after striking out and Attillio Signorini and Luca Signorini drew a pair of walks to load the bases.

Blankenship struck out six and walked three in 5 2/3 innings and gave up just the one hit to pick up the win on the hill for Logan.

Gertz brought Conn in to face Trevor Rutan, who grounded into a fielders choice on a 3-1 pitch to end the sixth.

Conn worked a scoreless seventh, striking out two batters to pick up the save after pitching 1 1/3 innings.

Buffalo had lost to Logan, 4-0, on Wednesday, but rallied to defeat Clay County, 3-1, on Thursday to advance to Saturday's championship game, which was delayed a day by rain.

Pitchford took the loss after allowing five runs, but only one earned run, on seven hits in six innings with one strikeout and two hit batters for Buffalo (16-14). Craig stole two bases for the Bison.

Logan pushed across two runs in the third inning to take a 2-0 lead. Talan Thompson got the scoring started with an RBI single to drive in McCormick Ilderton. Later in the inning, Thompson scored on an error by the third baseman for the Wildcats second run.

Landon Hall scored on an error in the fourth inning to make it 3-0. Tanner Akers had a squeeze bunt to score Ivan Miller in the fifth and Thompson produced a sacrifice fly in the sixth to plate Hall with the fifth and final Wildcat run.

Ilderton went 3-for-3 with a stolen base and run scored, while Hall was 2-for-3 with a double and two runs. Thompson was 1-for-3 with one RBI and Miller 1-for-2 with a run.