HOLMES TOWNSHIP — Wynford’s Rylee Robinson is a freshman, but she showed the composure of an upperclassman in pitching the Lady Royals to victory on a windy Thursday evening.

Robinson struck out 4 and didn’t walk a Crestline batter as the hosts took an 11-1 non-league win in 6 innings.

Lady Royals head coach Jamee Burke was pleased with the performance.

“Rylee’s just consistently gotten better and better for us in our first 5 games. That’s fun to see,” Burke said. “We have a second freshman pitcher, (Makayla Morgan) who is coming off a hand injury and that will be a help soon.”

Crestline scored its only run in the first inning when Maddie Engler led off with a single to centerfield. She stole second and third, then scored on an infield error.

Wynford went up 2-1 in its half of the inning thanks to singles by Reese McGuire and Alexis Stevely and Briley Hildreth’s double.

“We’re pretty freshman-heavy this year (6 on the roster). But Rylee is taking the main haul of things. She handles herself much older on the mound than what she is,” Burke said.

“She knows the game well. And we got Mel (Melanie Johnson) behind the plate so that helps too. She is a senior catcher, and she brings her back in whenever we need her to.”

Robinson scattered 4 hits and retired 12 of the last 13 batters she faced.

“I’m real proud of the infield and the defense we played and some of the outfield plays that Mackenzie (junior centerfielder Jones) made. She stole some hits from them when they made some good connections tonight.”

Jones was credited with 3 putouts.

Robinson held the Lady Bulldogs scoreless the rest of the way and her team added a solo run in the third and 3 more in the fourth for a 6-1 lead.

“We talked about that in the earlier games we didn’t take the bat off our shoulders. We are getting that confidence early on and realize that we are a good hitting team when we swing the bat. We’ve just got to keep doing that,” Burke said.

Things came apart in the sixth inning for Crestline.

An error, a walk, and a hit batter, coupled with McGuire’s triple and singles by Hildreth and Robinson, resulted in 5 runs scoring and the 11-1 victory.

Crestline head coach Jackie Flinders said her team will improve but needs to cut down on mistakes.

“My team is very, very young. We have a pitcher (Brooklyn Gregory), and we just need to try and minimize errors on routine plays to help her out.”

The Lady ‘Dogs committed 5 errors.

“That’s a lot of pressure on her. She’s been pitching since she was 9 years old,” Flinders said.

“We have 3 girls that play all year-round. We have a freshman catcher (Brooklyn Seargent). She got hurt and Lillian Bayes did a fine job stepping in there.”

The Lady Bulldogs lost one senior in catcher Emma Kirby from last year’s 6-7 team.

“My young team just needs to get our softball terminology and IQ up a little bit, and we’ll be fine. Brooklyn does a good job handling it. We just got to keep her healthy and the less pitches the better,” Flinders said.

“This one hurt a little bit, but I’m definitely not disappointed. They’re hungry and are going to get better.”

Seargent had two singles for Crestline and Gregory added one.

“I was happy to get the game in, with the rain we had last night,” Burke noted. “Next week is a heavy week for us. I think we’ve got 6 games, 3 league and 3 non-league.”

Those include Northern 10 Athletic Conference games against Carey and Bucyrus.

“We get our bodies healthy from some of those injuries earlier during the scrimmage time and we can keep playing well, things can go our way.”

Box score

Crestline   100 000            1        4        5

Wynford     201 305         11      11        1

WP: Rylee Robinson (4 SO, 0 W)

LP: Brooklynn Gregory (3 SO, 7 W)

HR: None.

Triples: (W) Reese McGuire.

Doubles: (W) Briley Hildreth 2.

Multiple hits: (W) Reese McGuire 3, Briley Hildreth 3, Maddy Lutz, Alexis Stevely; (C) Brooklyn Seargant.

Records: Crestline 1-3; Wynford 2-3.

Next: Crestline at Bucyrus, Saturday; Wynford at Carey, Monday.