By Joe Blystone
THE VILLAGE REPORTER
publisher@thevillagereporter.com
PETTISVILLE (May 14, 2026) — Pettisville’s Luke Horning doesn’t throw 90 miles an hour. Heck, Luke Horning may be pushing it to exceed the highway speed limit with his fastball.
But what the Blackbirds’ diminutive left-hander does when he is on, is throw strikes on a high percentage basis.
Against Edon (6-15), Horning did just that as he threw a three-hitter against the Bombers in a complete-game 4-1 win.
“Luke did an excellent job tonight. He was in command pretty much all night with all three of his pitches,” Blackbird coach Paul Bishop said.
“This honestly was the most he has thrown his curve all year long, but when you are able to throw three pitches for strikes you are going to usually be on the winning side of a game.”
Outside of a first-inning unearned run, Edon’s Lane Brandt matched Horning pitch for pitch the first four innings.
The Blackbirds scratched out a run in the opening inning when Creighton Aeschliman led off with a walk, went to third on an error, and scored on Quinn Ripke’s ground out.
Pettisville threatened again in the second. Ryan Bishop and Horning each singled, and Sebastian Ryan walked to load the bases with one down.
Brandt buckled down getting a strikeout and a force play to extinguish the threat. For the next three innings, neither team mustered much in the way of offense.
The Blackbirds played some ABC baseball to score another run in the fifth. Aiden Crawford punched a single to right to open the inning and advanced to second on a sacrifice.
With two outs, Ripke’s pop fly into shallow right fell between a pair of Bombers for a run-scoring single to double the Blackbird lead at 2-0.
That run became important in the top of the sixth. Corbin Chrisman legged out an infield single with two outs, then went to third on a Pettisville throwing miscue.
A wild pitch brought Chrisman home to slice the Blackbird lead in half. Pettisville (7-11) came right back in the bottom of the sixth to put the game away.
Jack Leppelmeier led off with a sharp single and Bishop followed with a bunt single to put runners at first and second.
Horning moved both runners with a sacrifice bunt, then Josh Morris shot a hot grounder off a diving Bomber for an infield hit to score a run.
Lincoln Aeschliman’s bouncer was misplayed for an error to bring yet another insurance tally across the plate to make it 4-1.
“We had some chances we didn’t execute very well early on, but the bottom line is toward the end of the game when we needed to, we put the ball in play and made some good things happen,” Bishop stated.
“Sometimes that has been a struggle for us this year but tonight it worked out and hopefully we can build some momentum heading into the tournament at the end of next week.”
Horning worked around a walk and a hit batsman in the seventh to finish his work. The crafty lefty walked three and struck out four earning the victory.
Brandt was the hard-luck loser, giving up eight hits and two earned runs.
EHS 000 001 0 – 1 3 3
PHS 100 012 x – 4 8 4
WP- Luke Horning (IP-7, R-1, H-3, K-4, BB-3)
LP- Lane Brandt (IP-6, R-4, H-8, K-5, BB-2)
LEADING HITTERS: (Pettisville) Quinn Ripke – 2 singles, 2 RBIs; Ryan Bishop – 2 singles; (Edon) 3 singles.
