HIGH SCHOOL

Woodmore scares Edison before falling short

Rich McGowan
Reporter

TIFFIN – The Woodmore baseball team wasn't about to be intimidated by either Edison's state ranking nor by their imposing starting pitcher.

The Wildcats came out swinging Thursday and put the No. 10-ranked Chargers on the ropes early in a Division III district semifinal.

But as the Chargers' bats came alive so too did the arm of pitcher Adam Wolf, who struck out 14 Wildcats as Edison defeated Woodmore 8-5. Wolf is signed to pitch next year the University of Louisville.

"We showed up today and we knew we had a shot," Woodmore coach Jake Huss said. "I'll put my guys up against anybody. They proved it. We had one bad inning and that happens in high school baseball and it can cost you sometimes."

The loss drops the Wildcats to 17-8 overall and they finish their season Friday with a make-up game at Elmore.

Woodmore got off to as good a start as it could have hoped for. A base hit down the right field line by Logan Fonseca drove in lead-off hitter Matt Depner and Tristan Roth later scored on a passed ball for a 2-0 lead after the top of the first inning.

Edison answered in the bottom half of the inning but Woodmore manufactured another pair of runs in the third. Depner led off with a triple and soon after scored on an Edison error at first base where Mason Beachler was safe on a dropped third strike. Beachler also came around to score later on another passed ball giving Woodmore a 4-2 lead.

"We stayed pretty steady throughout the game," Huss said. "I talk to them all the time about the battle of the ups and downs and don't get too high and don't get too low and stay even-keeled. We knew we could come out and hit him from the get-go."

The Wildcats maintained their lead midway through the fifth inning thanks to a stellar pitching performance by Roth, who struck out seven in five innings of work.

"He threw a lot of curveballs, a lot of first-pitch curveballs" Edison coach Sean Hoover said of Roth. "That's his out-pitch and I think we sat there and watched too many of them early."

Edison's bats, however, caught up to Roth in the fifth inning. The Chargers batted around the order, keyed by a 2-RBI triple by Clay Cooper. Edison scored six runs in the frame and took an 8-5 lead.

Though Woodmore got a run back in the top of the seventh, the Wildcats never again threatened to pull off the upset.

"I was real happy with the effort they put out," Huss said. "Obviously their pitcher is a great pitcher, going places, and we came out and we hit the ball. Even some of our outs, we hit the ball hard. I couldn't be more proud of them."

rmcgowan@gannett.com

419-334-1043

Twitter: @RMcGowan1