By Drew Terhall

Dailyadvocate.com

BRADFORD — To round out the regular season, the Railroaders baseball team won 14-4 over Franklin Monroe on May 11 at home.

Coach Derrick Skinner said the team came out focused on hitting line drives and putting balls in play in the windy conditions. Today, the bats found success.

“We hit the ball pretty well. We’ve been getting a little near the last couple of games and I’m getting tired of it. We focused today on hitting line drives and keeping the ball down, especially with the wind blowing. We have some kids that have some potential pop, but you’re not going to do anything in this wind,” Skinner said.

Franklin Monroe head coach Tyler Zimmerman said the team made some good plays, but it wasn’t the performance he was looking for to end the season.

“Got a couple runs on the board. But it’s not the performance we wanted as a team heading into the tournament. This one kind of feels like two steps forward and three steps back,” Zimmerman said.

Bradford scored five runs in the top of the first inning. Senior Landon Wills started the scoring off with a RBI double. With the bases loaded, senior Hudson Hill walked in a run. Sophomore Gage Shafer cleared the bases with a three-run single to put the Railroaders up 5-0.

Bradford got the bats out again in the bottom of the second inning. Junior Owen Canan and sophomore Colton Gambill each had an extra base hit drive in a run. Canan had a double while Gambill hit a triple.

The Jets got two runs back in the top of the fourth inning. Sophomore Ben Denlinger scored on a wild pitch and senior Conner Neitzelt had a RBI.

Zimmerman said in the last three games, the team hasn’t been able to put runs up early. He wants to see the team get out to a faster start, especially in the postseason.

“Every game from Wednesday, Friday and today we had three runs in the first inning. Got to get those slow starts out of the way and hopefully clean it up for Wednesday,” Zimmerman said.

Bradford not only matched those runs but scored an additional four runs in the bottom of the fourth. They scored their second run on a balk and Canan drove in another run.

Freshman Raiden Wombold hit a RBI double and senior Tucker Miller had a three-run inside the park home run to go up 14-2 entering the fifth inning.

The Jets started to get something going at the plate in the fifth inning. They scored a run on an error to make it a 14-3 game.

Junior Parker Patrick drove in a run on a single. But with two outs and another runner trying to score, the Bradford defense got the ball to senior Trey Schmelzer who got the tag to end the game.

Franklin Monroe made some good contact against some of the better pitchers in the WOAC. Miller and Wills took the mound for Bradford in this game.

Skinner said he wanted both of those guys to stay ready and be ready for any possible tournament scenario that comes their way.

“Wanted to keep Tucker fresh and dialed in for his start on Wednesday. He did a nice job pitching. Then we brought in Landon, that could be potentially something we do tournament wise. We wanted to replicate that again today,” Skinner said.

Miller had four strikeouts in four innings with Wills having one strikeout in one inning.

Zimmerman said his team has faced great pitchers in both the Bradford pitchers and faced Arcanum sophomore Regan Christ in last night’s game that helped get his team ready for tournament play.

In the OHSAA Division IV Baseball Southwest Sectional, the 14th seed Jets will head to tenth seed Covington on May 15 for a 5 p.m. first pitch.

The fourth seeded Railroaders will host the winner of 13th seed Riverside and 18th seed Tri-Village on May 15 at 5 p.m.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected].