OXFORD – The two Chenango County varsity baseball teams – Oxford and Unadilla valley – slugged it out on Monday evening as neither team was able to truly gain the lead in a game that was called due to darkness, ending in a 4-4 tie.

Oxford came out swinging in the early goings on the game – taking the lead when Jon Heggie came home off a Phil Smith ground out to second base.

Up 1-0 in the bottom of the first it was Dylan Depew who managed to round the bases from second when Oxford’s Brad Beckwith hit a ground ball toward Andrew Jackson at shortstop. An error on the play from jackson resulted in one-point swing in favor of the home team, as Beckwith reach first.

With an exchange of pitching finesse coming from UV’s Payton Stirone (2.2 innings, two strikeouts) and Andrew Jackson (2.2 innings, four strikeouts) and Osborne (3 innings, two strikeouts) – as well as Oxford’s Austin Crawford (4.2 innings, 12 strikeouts) and Jon Heggie (3.1 innings, four strikeouts) the score remained knotted for long periods of time. It was in fact Oxford who continued to extend their lead to 3-0.

Depew doubled on a fly ball to left field in the bottom of the third, sending Crawford home for the third strike of the night. Depew later scored later in the inning, when Noah Robb singled to second base – Oxford stood in command up 4-0.

Hope looked bleak for an opening-day win on the UV side, however, first-year head coach Matt Osborne rallied the troops for a solid finish to a shaking game.

It was Payton Stirone who used his wheels to fly home in the top of the fifth inning when Jared White smacked a ground ball down the first base line. An error on Brad Beckwith allowed White to reach first and Stirone to draw the score to 4-1. The comeback had begun.

White scored later in the inning, when he decided a steal from third base was the right decision. And it was, as the score then moved to 4-2 in favor of Oxford.