Apr 14, 2016 By Adam Brewer for The 3 min read

JEFFERSON — Strong starting pitching, sound defense and timely hitting were the right recipe for success for Bentworth, as the Bearcats defeated Jefferson-Morgan, 5-1, Wednesday to stay unbeaten in Section 1-A play.

Riley Nickeson picked up the win on the rubber, throwing five innings and scattering three hits. Nickeson also had three strikeouts with two free passes.

“This was a big, section game for us on the road,” Bentworth coach George Linck said. “It starts with our starting pitcher. He had good location and was able to throw strikes. He threw 63 pitches in five innings. He was excellent today.”

Bentworth’s Josh Hughes picked up the final six outs of the contest and had three strikeouts in relief.

“If you are going to win games, you have to play great defense,” Linck said. “We did that today and we didn’t allow them any extra outs. You lose games when you play bad defense. We were aggressive in the outfield and our infield got in front of the ball.”

Gage Clark was tagged with the loss for the Rockets (3-2, 0-1) in their section opener, despite just giving up four runs on eight hits over five innings. The junior righty registered five strikeouts with just one walk.

“We didn’t hit as well as we could, but you got to give their pitcher a lot of credit,” J-M skipper John Curtis said. “He pitched a good game and we gave away some at-bats. He kept us off-balance with his curve ball. Gage threw a good game, but we couldn’t give him enough run support.”

Jakob Bissett threw the final two innings for J-M, allowing a run on two hits with two strikeouts and one walk.

After both teams were held scoreless in the first two innings, the Bearcats grabbed a 2-0 lead after four straight hits with one out in the third inning. Nick Silver and Jake Maimore recorded back-to-back RBI singles to give the visitors the lead.

The Rockets countered in the bottom half of the third when Brennan Kozich reached first on an infield single and scored on an RBI triple by Clark to make it 2-1.

Bentworth (5-2, 3-0) increased its lead to 4-1 after a two-run, two-out single by Nickeson in the fifth.

The Bearcats grabbed one more run in the sixth when Hunter Neely laced a RBI single. The top four hitters for Bentworth had eight of the visitors’ 10 hits with Neely totaling a team-high three hits in the win.

“We are very capable on offense and we have a lot of good bats throughout our line-up,” Linck said. “Today the top of our lineup set the tone for us in those two big innings and they were very selective today against a good pitcher. We got those clutch hits today.”

Despite a hit by J-M’s Eli Rafail in the bottom of the seventh, Hughes was able to work his way around the hit and secure the victory with a strikeout and a fly out to center field.

“This is just one game, but it was an important game,” Curtis said. “You have to win games on your home field. We got a couple of big games coming up, and we just have to refocus. We have to bring a better approach with our at-bats and get those timely hits.”

J-M continues Section 1-A play today with a home contest against California, while Bentworth is idle until Saturday when it plays Carmichaels at CONSOL Energy Park.