By PAUL STURM, C-T Sports Editor
The Chillicothe Mudcats got back to level ground Saturday night, but clearly have their sights set much higher.
Winning for the fourth time in a row to square their overall record at 6-6, the Fish pounded out a deceptively-close 15-9 MINK League conquest of the visiting Mac-N-Seitz Athletics at “June” Shaffer Memorial Park.
Chillicothe improved to 4-6 in the league with third-consecutive loop win. Mac-N-Seitz fell to  1-7 in the league and 2-11 in all games.
Saturday’s victory came in right-handed pitcher Josh Hake’s hitless, five-inning debut with the Fish. He was signed after a recurrence of sciatica, a lower-back/nerve ailment which affects the legs, put starter Calvin Drinnen on the shelf for what figures to be an extended period of time.
“Josh came in and did a great job for us, which we expected him to. He’s going to be a nice guy to fill in for (Drinnen),” said Chillicothe head coach Adam Steyer.
“The fact that he went out and hung consistent zeroes early (made it) a great first outing for him.
“We’ll expect him to continue  to get better every time.”
Hake, who hadn’t thrown for a while since his strong senior year with Park University in Parkville (north Kansas City) finished in May, was lifted despite having not yet yielded a base hit.
Richie Mascheri worked a hitless sixth before the metropolitan KC baseball academy’s team put a mark in the hits column.
The Mudcats’ hits-and-runs parade began immediately in the first inning and barely took any pauses the first half of the game as they built an insurmountable 13-0 lead.
A four-run first inning saw three of the first four batters reach on two walks and a hit batsman. The first hit was a loud one then as leading RBI man Brett Sowers bombed a three-run double on one short bounce off the wall in left field. He later would add a slicing, two-run single to right field to give him five runs driven in in a game he departed in the fifth inning and 17 in 12 games.
Second baseman Brian Fisher (Oklahoma City University), attempting to establish a beachhead after a 3-for-24 start to his summer season, delivered a two-out single to center that made it 4-0 after one.
As they did the opening frame, the Mudcats sent eight men to the plate in the second, tacking on three more tallies. One scored on a wild pitch and another when Tony Nix’s long drive to center was dropped for a two-base error. Justin Shultz’s bouncer up the middle boosted the margin to 7-0.
Another crooked number went on the board in the Chillicothe third as a Nix groundout plated Bryan Mason, who’d gotten his second-straight hit after entering the game struggling at .074 (two for 27), and Darian Sandford darted home on a wild pitch.
“We’re happy with our run support right now,” Steyer stated the obvious after his club – shut out twice in the first games of the year – made it seven runs scored or more in four of the last five outings.
“The key is we’re getting runs early. We’re getting early leads to (let Mudcats pitchers) go out and pitch comfortably. When you’re doing that, it makes the game a lot easier. The key is going to be is taking the same quality of at-bats in tight situations.”
Athletics reliever Mike Morin kept Chillicothe off the scoreboard for the first time in the fourth, but the Mudcats greeted thrid pitcher Drew Mannen with a four spot in the fifth.
Mason got on for the third of four-straight times with a walk leading off. Sandford then hit a grounder right up the middle for an infield hit and, with one out, Steve Jensen – batting for Nix – drew a bases-filling free pass.
Sowers sliced a liner to right that a diving attempt couldn’t quite catch. That allowed two runs to score, putting the Mudcats into dual digits for the second time this season.
An error let a third run of the inning score and Fisher singled in a run again to make it 13-0 after five.
The Leawood, Kan.-based visitors finally managed their first hit in the seventh as John Creely, mainly a catcher, made his Mudcats mound debut.
Jeff Lusardi’s one-out, sinking liner to right hit the grass just in front of Jensen and skipped past for a double, setting the stage for the Athletics to post five runs.
Just to be sure of the triumph, the Mudcats posted a couple more tallies in their eighth. The first scored on Freddy Soto’s double off the base of the left-field wall, bringing home Jake Aylward. Fisher followed with his third hit and third RBI to ring down the curtain on the Mudcats’ scoring.
Struggling Mac-N-Seitz padded its offensive statistics some in the top of the ninth against the fifth Chillicothe pitcher, Freddy Soto.
Only a few months into a trial conversion from a position player to pitcher, the Dominican Republic native via New York City and Western Oklahoma State College was making his first appearance since yielding a game-tying grand slam home run in last Sunday’s 10-inning loss at Nevada.
He easily kept the ball in the more-spacious park this time, but continued to give up baserunners at an unhealthy clip. Four bases on balls and three singles added up to four more Athletics runs before a popup to Fisher at third by the 10th batter in the inning finally brought a halt to 3:13 of baseball.
Statistically, Chillicothe out-hit Mac-N-Seitz 15-7. Even with liberal subsitutions the second half of the contest, four Mudcats had multi-hit games, led by Fisher’s 3-for-5 showing with three RBIs. Mason, Sandford, and Sowers (five runs batted in) had two each.
The Mudcats, who entered haing fanned 81 times (7.4 Ks per nine innings) had only two strikeouts in 48 plate appearances.
“We felt confident coming in and it’s continuing to carry over every at-bat,” Steyer said of his team’s improved offensive mindset.