ON THE HILL — Big Red’s Aydan Manning delivers after entering the game as a relief pitcher Thursday at the Crimson Complex. Big Red dropped a 7-2 decision to visiting Dover. - Andrew Grimm

STEUBENVILLE — Visiting Dover used a big inning to pull away from Big Red and did not look back, taking a 7-2 win at the Crimson Complex on Thursday evening.

The Crimson Tornadoes did most of their damage in the third inning, scoring five runs, which ended up being the final margin.

For Big Red, it continued a tough first week of the season with a third loss in as many outings since an opening day triumph on Saturday.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” veteran Big Red head coach Fred Heatherington said.

After the teams traded runs in the first, Dover (1-1) took a 3-1 lead with a two-out, two-run single from catcher Jonah Marks in the top of the third.

A pair of walks loaded the bases back up, and Big Red starter Cooper Blackburn was tossed by the home plate umpire for his reaction to the calls. He was replaced by Aydan Manning.

Dover plated three runs on two-out RBI walks to push the lead to 6-1 before Steubenville got the third out.

Big Red, which had 10 hits in the game, chipped one off the deficit in the bottom of the fifth with a two-out grounder by Lee Sewell with runners on, the throw pulling the first baseman’s foot off the bag to allow a run to cross.

Steubenville was threatening to pull even closer in the sixth when pinch-hitter Brenden Dobreff and catcher Zach Smith hit back-to-back singles to put two on with no one out, but Dover starter Ethan Kellicker (six innings, three strikeouts) induced three-straight ground balls for routine plays to end the threat with no damage.

After Dover added a run in the top of the seventh, Dover reliever Colin Bruno worked a 1-2-3 bottom half to finish things out.

“That was (Kellicker’s) first outing, I thought he battled,” Dover head coach Jeff Fondriest said. “I thought our defense played pretty well. We’ll take it for our first win.

“Fred always fields a good team and they’re competitive as heck. We didn’t play well the other night against St. Clairsville so it’s hopefully a momentum builder for us to come down here and even our record.”

Bubby Reese worked the final 3 1/3 innings for Big Red, allowing a run on one hit. He also had a single at the plate.

Hakim Edwards and Cole Bowers had multi-hit games for Steubenville with a pair of base knocks each.

UP NEXT

Dover: Has another challenging game against Massillon today.

Big Red: Is off until a Monday trip to Indian Creek.

Dover 7, Big Red 2

Dover 1-0-5 0-0-0 1 – 7 8 1

Big Red 1-0-0 0-1-0 0 – 2 10 2

DOVER (1-1): Kellicker (WP, 6IP, 2R, 2ER, 10H, 3K, 2BB, 1HBP), Bruno (1IP, 0R, 0H, 0K, 0BB) and Marks. Kellicker D; Schie S, RBI; Hamm S; Edwards 2S; Marks S, 2RBI; J. Leggett RBI; N. Leggett RBI.

BIG RED (1-3): C. Blackburn (LP, 2 2/3IP, 6R, 6ER, 4H, 2K, 4BB, 1HBP), Manning (1IP, 0R, 2H, 2K, 3BB), Reese (3 1/3IP, 1R, 1ER, 1H, 0K, 1BB) and Smith. Smith S; McAllister S; Pierce S; Edwards 2S; Sewell S, RBI; Reese S; Bowers 2S; Dobreff S.