NEW MADISON – The Tri-Village baseball team topped Bradford 3-1 in a pitchers’ duel on Tuesday evening.
Tri-Village’s Jonny Wilson, who threw a perfect game against Bradford last year in the opening round of the Ohio High School Athletic Association tournament, was strong again on Tuesday as he pitched the complete game and allowed just one run on four hits, three walks and 10 strikeouts.
Parker Smith kept Bradford in the game as he threw a strong game as well, allowing two earned runs and one unearned run on six hits, one walk and two strikeouts in a complete game effort.
Both pitchers were perfect through three innings on Tuesday as neither team could get anything going offensively until their second time through the order.
In the top of the fourth Smith helped his own cause by drawing a leadoff walk, advancing to second on a Mason Justice sacrifice grounder and scoring on a RBI single by Andy Branson to put the Railroaders up 1-0.
The lead didn’t last for long as Tri-Village responded in the bottom half of the inning. Christian Ricker and Wilson both singled to set up a RBI single by Tanner Maples, tying the game at 1-1.
In the fifth inning Tri-Village took its first lead of the day. Luke Wheeler led off with a single and advanced to second on a Jordan Buckley sacrifice bunt. Ricker then hit a two-out RBI single to drive in Wheeler and put the Patriots up 2-1.
Tri-Village added an insurance run in the sixth. Wilson led off with a single and stole second. He advanced to third on a sacrifice by Mason Sullenbarger and scored on a Bradford error to make it 3-1.
“I thought we hit the ball hard,” Tri-Village coach Jim Maples said. “I thought they made some good defensive plays. We hit some balls right at them. I thought we made solid contact. Things just didn’t go our way on that part of it. We did just enough to get the three runs and hold the lead.”
Tri-Village finished the game with six hits and no errors while Bradford had four hits and one error.
“I thought we did really well actually,” Bradford coach Shane Snyder said. “Defensively we were really solid for the first five innings. Our last two games we’ve looked really, really good on defense. I think we started off tonight defensively really well. I just told the guys you’ve got to put together seven innings of great defense. It can’t be five or six. It’s got to be seven full innings.”
For Tri-Village Ricker was 2-for-3 with a RBI and scored a run. Wilson was 2-for-3 and scored a run. Maples went 1-for-3 and drove in a run.
Branson went 2-for-3 with a double and a RBI for Bradford. Smith scored the Railroaders’ lone run.
Tri-Village will return to the field at 5 p.m. Wednesday when it travels to Franklin Monroe. The game originally was scheduled for Thursday but was moved up one day in anticipation of rain on Thursday.
Bradford will play host to Ansonia on Thursday.
