HOLMES TOWNSHIP — Wynford’s Cobey Allen is the epitome of a hard-luck pitcher.

The Royals’ starter worked a complete-game five-hitter Saturday against Fredericktown, but his teammates struggled on the basepaths in a 3-1 loss to the Freddies in the opening game of the season. The game was the first of a doubleheader.

Four Royals were thrown out on the bases in the game, a fact that alarmed Wynford coach Tom Smith.

“We were not very good on the bases today,” Smith said. “We want to be aggressive on the bases but if we get thrown out, we want to do it going forward. We got thrown out three times today going backward. You can’t do that against a team like Fredericktown.”

Wynford opened the game with a single but got thrown out trying to steal second. A player got picked off at second in the third, and players were caught in rundowns in the fifth and sixth innings.

That certainly didn’t help Allen, who did a great job of keeping the Fredericktown hitters off-balance and staying ahead of hitters. Allen struck out three and walked two in the game.

“(Allen) pitched a great game,” Smith said. “He threw under 100 pitches, and, when you can do that, that’s a great game.

“He threw strikes, and he did a nice job of keeping their hitters off-balance,” Smith added. “He filled up the zone. I think he only had (two) walks and one hit batter. That’s what we want him to do.”

Allen simply struggled to stop Fredericktown leadoff hitter Ty Hatfield, who finished with two of his team’s five hits and scored all the Freddies’ runs.

Hatfield scored in the first and fourth when Fredericktown manufactured runs, then drove a home run the opposite way to right in the seventh.

Wynford ran themselves out of innings in the first, third, fifth, and sixth but scored in the fourth. Cainen Allen singled to open the frame, moved to third on a Fredericktown error and scored on a ground ball from Dylon Robinson.

“Fredericktown is one of the better teams we will see this season, probably one of the top 10 teams in the state,” Smith said. “We played a good team, but we can’t get beat the way we did.”

Lincoln Cunningham started for the Freddies, earning the win, and Cain Carpenter worked the final two frames for the save. Both threw sharp fastballs and mixed in their breaking balls to good effect.

Leyton Appleby got three hits for the Royals and Cainen Allen added two more.

Box score

Fredericktown      100 010 1      3     5     2

Wynford                   000 100 0      1     7     2

WP: Lincoln Cunningham (5 SO, 1 W)

LP: Cobey Allen (3 SO, 2 W)

HR: (F) Ty Hatfield.

Triples: None.

Doubles: None.

Multiple hits: (F) Ty Hatfield, Cain Carpenter; (W) Leyton Appleby (3), Cainen Allen.

Records: Fredericktown 1-0; Wynford 0-1.

Next: Fredericktown at Olentangy Liberty, Wednesday; Wynford at Upper Sandusky, Wednesday.