HOLMES TOWNSHIP (Crawford County Now) — The Lady Royals are sitting atop the league standings, tied with perennial power Mohawk.

A 13-2, 5-inning win over rival Bucyrus in a Northern 10 Athletic Conference game Wednesday night put Wynford’s record at 7-1, identical to that of the Lady Warriors.

“We’re playing maybe with a little chip on our shoulder. We started off last year at the top for most of it. Some injuries happened and things happen. That is life,” Lady Royals head coach Chelsea Rice said.

This season the fortunes have turned in Wynford’s favor.

“But the girls want it. They know they have a chance to be number one, if not then co-number one. The girls want more, and they want everyone to realize that Wynford is back on top.”

Junior pitcher Rylee Robinson, who was injured midway through last season, has been dominant in the circle this spring.

On Wednesday Robinson scattered 7 hits, struck out 6 and walked none in picking up her 9th win against 4 losses. She has 97 strikeouts and 21 bases on balls unofficially.

Robinson also delivered three hits, including a triple to left in the third inning to give the Lady Royals a 4-0 lead.

Briley Hildreth added three hits of her own and three RBI as Wynford pounded out 13 hits. Erin Wolfe doubled and drove in 4 runs.

Bucyrus hung tough, however, trailing 5-0 into the fourth inning. The Lady Red got 7 hits, a marked improvement from 24 hours earlier, when they were no-hit.

But Wynford plated 8 runs on 6 hits in the bottom of the fifth to give the hosts their 9th win overall.

“Rylee is a great pitcher. Every time you go against her you know you’ve got to put the ball in play,” Lady Red head coach Mike Middleton said.

“We played a lot of small ball, definitely when she is pitching and that worked tonight. We got quite a few girls on and scored a couple of times.”

Tori Stang had an infield single in the third, as did sophomore Addie Weber. Weber had two hits for Bucyrus and Karlee Shull doubled in the second Bucyrus run in the fifth.

Wynford has improved its defense and mental aspects from last year.

“The motto this year is always want more. Errors happen. It’s the next play that matters to us,” Rice said.

“You just saw the ball went between left and center. The quick relays and they know how to shoot it to Lily Laipply at shortstop and then make a tag at third with Erin.”

Rice said the team knows when to focus on the job at hand.

“We joke around, and we have our fun. Come game time these girls are more competitive than anybody next in line. They all want the ‘W’ as much as anybody,” Rice said.

A group of four teams are jockeying for top N10 honors with most of the second half of league play remaining. To tighten the race further, Buckeye Central edged Seneca East 6-5, to remain in the hunt with a 7-2 league mark.

“We have a hard second half. We still have Mohawk. We still have Crawford; we have a make-up game with Buckeye and Upper (Sandusky). We’ll go up against all those teams and the girls’ mentality is they want to be number one,” Rice said.

Rain and non-league games are in the forecast the rest of the week, but Middleton remains confident in his squad.

“We’re seeing the ball better and we hit a lot of nice line drives,” he said. “Playing non-league games and getting two wins in a row gave the girls some confidence. We beat Marion Harding Monday night, a D-III school and played a lot of girls that night.

“The rest of the league is tough every time we play. We’ve just got to prepare,” he said.

Box score

Bucyrus    000 11X X       2       7       4

Wynford   302 8XX X    13     13       0

WP: Rylee Robinson (6 SO, 0 W)

LP: Bell Bruss (1 SO, 2 W)

HR: None.

Triples: (W) Rylee Robinson.

Doubles: (B) Marissa Middleton, Karlee Shull; (W) Erin Wolfe, Rylee Robinson.

Multiple hits: (B) Addie Weber; (W) Briley Hildreth 3, Rylee Robinson 3, Kate McGuire, Erin Wolfe.

Records: Bucyrus 4-13, 0-10 N10; Wynford 9-6, 7-1 N10.

Next: Ashland Crestview at Bucyrus, Thursday; New Riegel at Wynford, Thursday.