JORDAN HOLLAND The Marietta Times Marieta High’s Kail Hill (3) receives a throw to first to retire Warren’s Thomas Miller during a high school baseball game Tuesday at Legion Field. Marietta won, 6-0.

Senior Heath Hill pitched six strong innings for Marietta High, got great defense behind him and plenty of offensive support as the Tigers defeated Warren 6-0 Tuesday at Legion Field.

It was Marietta’s seventh straight win over their rivals, dating back to 2016.

“Heath pitched extremely well,” said Marietta head coach Josh McKitrick. “He’s pitched well all year. Our pitchers have put us in position to win games all season.”

Hill, a left-hander, struck out three batters, issued three walks and allowed three base hits in the win. The Tigers collected eight hits in the game and played errorless ball in the field. MHS topped Warren 5-2 earlier this season in the Washington County Challenge.

“It’s a our rival, so that’s a good thing,” McKitrick said before noting Warren had Marietta’s number for awhile before the Tigers’ recent run. “They cooked us for a little bit there. But yeah, seven in a row is a good thing.”

Warren got singles from Evan Gandee, Noah Edgell and Kurt Taylor in the game. Levi Tucker nearly had a bunt base hit in the top of the fourth inning, but Brady Vincent charged in at third, made a bare-handed pickup and fired to Corbin Alkire at first for the out.

Warren head coach Ryan Lemley praised Marietta’s pitching and defense.

“I thought (Hill) did a good job,” Lemley said. “There were times where he may have gotten in a little jam, but they helped him out defensively. I thought they played really well.

“The play (Vincent) made on the bunt for a hit was the play of the game.”

Warren had its best scoring chance right off the bat in the top of the first. Gandee hit a one-out single to center and went to second on Drew Huffman’s groundout to Vincent. Edgell then poked a single to left field, and Lemley waved Gandee around. MHS left fielder Caleb Scharff fielded the ball cleanly and fired to home plate in plenty of time for catcher Justin Thompson to tag out Gandee.

Marietta capitalized on its scoring opportunity in the first. With runners on the corners and one out, Jarrett Jackson hit a sacrifice fly to right field to plate Kail Hill, who scored his first of four runs in the game.

The Tigers loaded the bases with two outs in the second and brought three runs in. Vincent drove in the first on a bases-loaded walk before Alkire knocked a two-run single to center to make it 4-0.

Marietta added a run in the fourth on Vincent’s RBI single and the sixth when Hill scored on an error.

“They did a good job taking advantage of our mistakes,” Lemley said. “We had a couple errors there that they took advantage of, and they took advantage of some walks there in the second inning.”

Devon Moss pitched a 1-2-3 seventh inning for the Tigers to close things out.

Huffman took the loss for Warren (9-13), walking three and striking out one in two innings. Taylor tossed the final four frames, tallying one walk and one K.

Both teams have a few regular season games remaining before the postseason tournament starts next week.

From his team, Lemley is hoping to see “good approaches at the plate and us getting a little bit better defensively. Being a young team we tend to struggle offensively, so when we give away outs we get in trouble. A game that might be 2-0 or 3-0 becomes 6-0.”

McKitrick, whose team is 11-10 and has won two in a row after a five-game losing skid last week, thinks good things will continue to happen if the Tigers can field their positions and get timely hits.

“Brady’s had two outstanding games in a row at third base. Derek (Duckworth) made some great plays at shortstop as well.

“When we hit and field the ball like we did today, that puts us in a good opportunity to get Ws.”