Pitcher gets past mistake

Green missed first 50 games because of drug suspension.

— Hunched over DAYTON a computer in the bowels of Fifth Third Field on Thursday, Cole Green tried to make sense of his performance the previous evening. He dissected all of his pitches, looking for positives in his second appearance with the Dragons.

“I was falling behind batters, not finishing pitches,” Green said. “It takes time to get used to a new park.”

The right-handed reliever, a ninth-round pick in 2011 out of the University of Texas, had extra time to get ready to pitch for the Dragons. He spent the first two months of the season in extended spring training in Arizona, serving a 50-game suspension after testing positive last season for Methylhexaneamine, a dietary supplement that is also considered a performance-enhancing substance.

Green found out about the suspension on his drive home from Billings, where he was 4-1 with a 4.24 ERA last season.

“It was definitely a wake-up call,” he said. “It was horrible. I’m just thankful it’s over, and I was able to get here quickly.”

Green said he bought a dietary supplement called OxyElite at GNC (General Nutrition Center) and didn’t realize it contained a banned substance.

“A lot of guys have gone down for it,” he said. “I didn’t read the label right. I didn’t get it checked out like I should have. I understand the way the game’s been. I understand they’re trying to clean it up from the bottom up. It was horrible to go through the offseason with it lingering.”

After being activated from the restricted list Monday, Green can put the experience behind him. He threw a scoreless inning Monday, but gave up four runs in an inning Wednesday.

A year ago at this time, he was pitching in the College World Series with Texas. He was the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year as a junior in 2010 and was drafted in the fourth round by the Tigers. He turned down a $300,000 offer to return to Texas for his senior year, a decision that cost him $250,000, he said, when he was drafted in the ninth round last year.

“It was the hardest decision I’ve ever made in my life,” Green said. “I don’t regret it. It was a fun ride. I got an education along the way.”

Untimely mistakes undid Covington, which fell in the Division IV state softball semifinals for the second straight year, 53 to Vienna Matthews on Thursday.

Not that the Buccaneers (25-5) didn’t have their chances after stranding runners at second and third in the first and second innings.

Covington also gave up three unearned runs, two on an overthrown ball to first and another when a ball was thrown into center field.

Vienna Matthews pushed across a run in the third and two more in the fifth to build an early lead.

The Buccaneers got on the board in the fifth with an RBI single by Heidi Snipes, but Vienna Matthews answered with two more runs in the top of the seventh.

Convoy Crestview 8, Strasburg-Franklin 7: The Knights avenged their 3-1 loss to StrasburgFranklin in the D-IV state championship last year.

Crestview, making its 10th appearance in the state tournament since 2000, will play Vienna Matthews on Saturday at 10 a.m. at Akron Firestone Stadium.

Bloom-Carroll 3, Milan Edison 1: After trailing for the first time all postseason, the Bulldogs rallied to earn a trip to the D-III state final.

Bloom-Carroll will play Warren Champion on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Akron Firestone Stadium.