By Dan Messerschmidt
CCN Sports Director

SHELBY — Wynford didn’t live up to preseason expectations during the regular season. But the postseason is a different story.

The Royals — seeded 10th in the district — had to defeat two higher seeded teams to win the sectional. The reward was a meeting No. 1 seed Galion. They seemed unfazed.

Wynford broke open a scoreless pitchers’ duel with five runs in the second, then held on for a 6-5 victory over the Tigers in the Division III district semifinal at Shelby High School.

Milan Edison, a 5-0 winner over Oak Harbor in the second game, will be the Royals’ opponent in the district final at 1 p.m. Saturday back at Shelby.

“It’s a big credit to our kids and especially our seniors, to continue to try to persevere even though it’s been a little bit of a roller coaster season,” Wynford coach Jordan Oliver said. “This is four in a row, which is by far our longest winning streak of the year, so hopefully, we keep it going.”

Wynford (11-13) starting pitcher Wyatt Smith struggled with his control early on. The senior righthander walked four and hit a batter over the first four innings, but the result was six runners left on base for Galion (14-10) and no runs.

Smith also struck out eight in those four innings and pitched out of a bases-loaded, one out jam in the fourth to keep the Tigers off the board.

“Wyatt’s played a lot of baseball,” Oliver said. “When runners get on base, it doesn’t make him nervous. He knows he shouldn’t give them freebies, but he’s able to bear down and keep his mental focus and our defense made the plays behind him when we needed to.”

Galion’s Ryan Utz was matching Smith pitch for pitch, only more efficiently. Utz faced only one over the minimum over the first four innings in shutting down the Royals’ offense on two hits.

However, in the fifth inning, the complexion of the game took a sudden turn. Noah Smith started the inning for the Royals by reaching on an infield single and went to second on a throwing error. Nate Imbody sacrificed him to third and was not only safe but went to second on a throwing error by Utz while Smith came home with the first run of the game.

Seth Benedict laid down another sacrifice bunt to move Imbody to third. Utz then fanned Brock Noblit but the third strike was in the dirt and went to the backstop for a wild pitch, allowing Noblit to reach first and scoring Imbody.

A pair of walks loaded the bases and drove Utz from the mound. The big blow the inning came with two outs when Caleb Stone rammed a double to the fence in left-centerfield of reliever Carter Keinath to clear the bases.

The Royals tacked on an insurance run in the top of the sixth. Nate Imbody reached on an errant third strike, moved to second on a wild pitch, went to third on a single by Benedict and scored on sacrifice bunt by Noblit.

That run proved crucial as the bottom of the sixth unfolded.

Cameron Payne and Clay Karnes led off with walks for the Tigers. One out later, Smith hit Spencer Keller with a pitch to load the bases. Chase Castline drove in Galion’s first run with a single and Utz followed with a single that plated two and knocked Wyatt Smith off the mound.

Noah Smith relieved his bother and got the second out, but Mitchell Dyer tripled over the left fielder’s head to bring in two more, cutting the deficit to one.

“You can’t take it for granted,” Oliver said. “Galion is a very good team and well-coached. So, you expected them to fight back and make it a closer game than it was.”

The score stayed the same into the bottom of the seventh, when the Tigers were able to put two on base with a hit and a hit batter off Noah Smith. But Galion could get neither over the plate and the Royals held on for the win.

“It would have been nice to have a little bit more cushion,” Oliver said. “But I’m really happy that the guys hung tough and didn’t get down on themselves. We were able to pull it out.”

Wyatt Smith was the winning pitcher. He finished with nine strikeouts and six walks over 5-and-a-third innings. Stone paced the offense with two hits, including a double. Jordan imbody, Benedict and Noah Smith singled.

Utz lasted four-and-a third on the mound for Galion, recording four strikeouts and issuing two walks. He gave up five runs, all unearned, on three hits in taking the loss. Dyer tripled while, Utz, Payne, Castline and Ethan Pigg singled for the Tigers.

Oliver was not willing to speculate on the opponent in the final.

“Every team we’ve played in the tournament so far — being the 10 seed — has been a good team,” Oliver said. “We started off the tournament with Woodmore, 2-1. There’s not going to be anybody we’re going to overpower. I don’t want our players to worry much about them., just focus and play our best baseball.”

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Wynford   000 051 0      6    5    0

Galion       000 000 0      5    5    2

WP: Wyatt Smith (9 SO 6 W)

LP: Ryan Utz (4 SO, 2 W)

HR: None.

Triples: (G) Mitchell Dyer.

Doubles: (W) Caleb Stone.

Multiple hits: (W) Caleb Stone.

Records: Wynford 11-13; Galion 14-10.

Next: Wynford vs. Milan Edison, Division III district final, at Shelby, Saturday 1 p.m.