BRADFORD – The No. 4 seed Bradford Railroaders defeated the No. 6 seed Cedarville Indians 10-5 to advance in OHSAA DIV tournament action.
“We’re going to keep playing good baseball, do routine things, keep the bats moving, and use our speed,” said Bradford coach Derrick Skinner. “We have a ton of speed and executed well tonight running the bases.”
Cedarville grabbed a two-out 1-0 lead in the top of the second with a leadoff walk coming around to score on an Indians double to left.
Bradford battled back with a three-run second inning, taking advantage of a Colton Gambill leadoff single to center, a Hudson Hill walk, and a Tucker Miller two-out bases-loading single to third.
In the bottom of the inning, Bradford used a Gambill leadoff single to center, a Hill walk, and a Miller two-out bases-loading single to third. Trey Schmelzer singled hard to left, plating Gambill with Hill and Miller scoring on Cedarville errors on the same play, giving the Railroaders a 3-1 lead with two innings in the book.
Bradford pushed its lead to 5-1, adding two runs in the bottom of the third inning, getting a one-out Landon Wills walk, the speedy Owen Canan legging out an infield single to short, and a two-run double off the bat of Hill.
Cedarville made it a 5-2 score with a two-out run in the top of the fourth with Bradford plating two runs in their half of the inning. Miller knocked a one-out single to left with the WOAC player of the year taking second on an Indians’ error.
A wild pitch moved Miller to third, and a balk sent the Bradford senior home with the Roaders’ sixth run of the game. Schmelzer took first by way of a hit batsman and moved to second on a Trevino sacrifice bunt, setting up a two-out run, scoring Landon Wills single to right, giving Bradford a 7-2 lead after four compete.
Cedarville, a good-hitting team, answered leading off the top of the fifth with a double, a run-scoring triple, an RBI single, a walk, a hit batsman, and a wild pitch, plating an Indians run to trail 5-7 with runners on second and third and no outs on the board.
“They put some good swings on the ball,” said Skinner. “They have three kids going to college to play baseball – we have a couple of college caliber players too.”
Miller zoned in striking out the next three batters while stranding the Indians’ tying runs at second and third.
Bradford added three insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth taking advantage of lead-off Rallie Wirrig hit batsman, Schmelzer bunting into a fielder’s choice with Wirrig safe with a wide throw at second, followed by a two-run triple off the bat of Trevino and a Wills run-scoring single for a 5-10 Railroaders lead.
“Our bats were on tonight,” Skinner noted. “Throughout the year, in games that we didn’t pull through, we had guys on base and couldn’t get the clutch hit, and those insurance runs were huge.”
Landon Wills earned a save by pitching one-hit shutout ball over the final two innings.
Five Bradford seniors took the Railroaders’ home field for their final time wearing the Orange and Black. No. 4 Garrett Trevina, No. 10 Hudson Hill, No. 16 Tucker Miller, No 20 Landon Wills, and No. 33 Trey Schmelzer.
“We have five seniors, and typically Bradford has between three and five seniors, and usually there are a couple of quality seniors amongst those,” said Coach Skinner. “This year we have five of the best seniors I have ever seen come through here. They have taken the lead from the middle of the season on and have taken the leadership roles. They took ownership, they know the talent is here, and they took that bull by the horns and took off.”
Miller earned the win by pitching 5.0 innings, allowing 5 runs, 7 hits, 4 walks, and 2 HBP while striking out 7. Wills picked up the save tossing 2.0 inning of shutout ball on 1 hit, 1 walk, and 4 stikeouts.
Wills went 2-2 at the plate with 2 walks, 2 RBI and 1 run scored; Miller was 2-4 and 2 runs; Canan 2-4 including a double and a run. Hill 1-2, a walk, a stolen base, 2 RBI, 1 run; Trevino 1-3, a triple, 2 RBI, 2 runs; Schmelzer 1-2, 2 HBP, 2 RBI, 2 runs; Colton Gambill 1-4, 1 run and Wirrig 1 HBP, 1 run.
BOX SCORE
123 456 7 R H E
010 130 0 5 8 2 Cedarville
032 203 X 10 10 1 Bradford
