Baseball

Delhi 9, Oxford 6

OXFORD – Call it the curse of the number one, or better yet, Delhi finally turning the corner.

Oxford, newly-annointed the number one Class C team in the state last Thursday, suffered its first loss in five weeks ending a 14-game winning streak against the previously hard-luck Bulldogs.

Delhi has five one-run losses this season, said Oxford coach Chris Palmer, and he knew they were a team capable of giving his club trouble. “They definitely put the ball in holes where we had no defense,” Palmer said. “They are a good hitting team and they’ve played teams tough. We let them hang around enough to hurt us.”

Delhi scored four runs in the sixth inning to break a 5-5 tie. With one out, the visitors strung five hits together getting a go-ahead RBI single from Devin Bedient, and a two-run single from winning pitcher Trent Kathmann.

Ben Burdick was 2-for-4 with a run and an RBI for Oxford (17-2), Tom Locke also had two hits, one run and one RBI, and Nick Gates scored a pair of runs.

Oxford plays Sidney in the league title game Friday at 4:30 at Neahwa Park. “I told the guys it’s better to do it (lose) today than Friday or next week,” Palmer said. “We have to play better if we want to win anything from here on out. We’re only going to see tough teams the rest of the way.”