HOLMES TOWNSHIP — It was just another day at the office for Spencer Miller and his Wynford Royals teammates.
Miller scattered seven hits over seven innings and the Royals batters collected 10 hits as Wynford defeated Western Reserve, 6-0, in the Division III sectional championship at Wynford High School.
Royals head coach Tom Smith has come to expect such efficiency from his junior right-hander.
“That’s how Spencer pitches most games,” Smith said. “He’s had a couple of rough outings, but other than that, it’s usually 80-100 pitches and he throws a complete game almost every game.”
Western Reserve (12-11) threatened to score in the first inning. Caleb Pausch and Logan Wiegel delivered one-out singles. Miller not only got out of the inning but retired 10 consecutive Roughrider hitters into the fourth inning.
“We knew we were going to be facing a good hitting team,” Western Reserve coach Josh Good said. “Defensively, we’ve been playing well. Pitching, we’ve been throwing the ball really well this year. You can tell we’re a pretty young hitting team, for the most part.”
Both teams played error free defense and Roughrider starter Austin Harmeling pitched a reasonable game considering the opponent, the No. 3 seed in the district.
Harmeling lasted five innings, but Wynford (19-7) had a hit and left baserunners in every inning. Harmeling struck out only two, walked two and gave up nine hits.
“The bottom of the order wasn’t hitting early (in the year), so now we’re starting to get occasional hits out of the eight and nine spots, and we scored our first run with those guys,” Smith said. “If they’re hitting, we can bring some runs in.”
That came in the bottom of the second. Drew Johnson was hit by a pitch with one out. No. 8 hitter Brett Crall singled and Wes Prenger followed with a single to plate Johnson.
The Royals tacked on two more in the third. Miller drew a walk with one out and Grant McGuire doubled. Kaiden Blair drove in Miller and McGuire came home on a wild pitch.
“We played a great game,” Good said. “But we’ve got to hit the weight room, we’ve got to be hitting off tees. We can’t just show up next February 19 and think things are going to happen and put more of a challenge on their defense.”
Wynford scored two more in the fourth when the Royals bunched three hits. Prenger and Cainen Allen singled and both came around on the big blow, a two-run double by Sam Collene.
The sixth run came across in the fifth, on lead-off single by Blair, a stolen base, and a double by Johnson.
“We keep telling them if we get baserunners on, it’s harder to pitch, it’s harder on the defense,” Smith said. “It puts them out of position, the pitcher’s got to think about the runner. That’s what we’ve been trying to do, just get guys on base. Hopefully, then draw and error, get a hit. It worked out in our favor today.”
Miller and Prenger had two hits each to lead the Wynford offense. Collene doubled and drove in two, while Johnson doubled and batted in one and McGuire doubled.
Allen, Blair, and Crall singled. Miller struck out six and walked none in going the distance on the mound.
“Western Reserve played well,” Smith said. “They played good defense the whole game, they turned a double play on us,” I give them credit and I think they were missing on of their best players today.”
The Roughriders collected seven hits, including a double by Grant Bethard. Pausch singled twice and Wiegel, Rhett Grose, Tyler Wood, and Nolan Ryan singled.
“Division III wise, I think this is one of the toughest districts,” Good said. “You’ve got three teams that got votes for being state ranked. Wynford got votes and Crestview, in the Firelands Conference, didn’t get votes and they’re also a 20-win team. You’ve got four teams in the district with 20 wins. So, we played well, we competed. We just couldn’t get that base hit with runners in scoring position.”
The Royals return to the district tournament in Shelby on Thursday, where they take on No. 2 seed Oak Harbor. Wynford has the incentive of a rematch with Milan Edison. The Chargers ended the Royals’ season last year in the district final.
“I think they want to get back to Edison and that would be in the district championship,” Smith said. “That’s probably a motivating factor. We’ll see.”
Box score
Western Reserve 000 000 0 0 7 0
Wynford 012 210 X 6 10 0
WP: Spencer Miller (6 SO, 0 W)
LP: Austin Harmeling (2 SO, 2 W)
HR: None.
Triples: None.
Doubles: (WR) Grant Bethard; (W) Sam Collene, Drew Johnson, Grant McGuire.
Multiple hits: (WR) Caleb Pausch; (W) Spencer Miller, Wes Prenger.
Records: Western Reserve 12-11; Wynford 19-7.
Next: Western Reserve season over; Wynford vs. Oak Harbor at Shelby district, Thursday.