Hartz homers in Wynford victory

Wynford shortstop Adam Hartz collects a ground ball before throwing out a Riverdale hitter at first. Hartz went deep in the first inning with a two-run shot and tossed two innings of scoreless relief in a 9-3 win.

BUCYRUS — Wynford took advantage of Riverdale mistakes, defeating the Falcons, 9-3, in a North Central Conference baseball opener on Wednesday.
The Falcons (3-6, 0-1 NCC) committed five errors, gave up four unearned runs and were shut out after scoring one run in each of the first three innings.
“We just weren’t focused at times,” Riverdale senior Evan Wolfe said. “We just have to make sure we come ready to go next time and have our heads screwed on.”
Adam Hartz drilled a first-inning two-run home run and pitched two scoreless innings in relief of Brendan Bishop, who gave up just one earned run in five innings.
“It’s always nice to start off the league with a win,” Wynford coach Jon Amicone said. “After dropping two Saturday, we really needed to respond and I thought our kids did that. We responded pretty well and played baseball the right way.”

Riverdale pitcher Caleb Shultis winds up against a Royals’ batter Wednesday afternoon at Schreck Field. Shultis was roughed up for eight runs, five earned, seven hits and and four walks in 3 2/3 innings.

Wynford (6-5, 1-0 NCC) took the lead for good with a four-hit, three-run second inning. Mason Davis and Chase Lantz had RBI singles and Gage Roe hit a sacrifice fly.
Wolfe cut Riverdale’s deficit to two with a run-scoring single, but he was left stranded at third and Wynford got the run back in the bottom of the third a single by Bishop that scored Jerad Butler.
Two more Royals runs, both unearned in the fourth inning, made it a five-run game and they scored one more unearned run in the sixth.
Caleb Shultis doubled in the game’s first run in the first inning for Riverdale, but it failed to add another run. Wolfe was hit by a pitch and intentionally got caught in a rundown to try to allow Shultis to score from third, but he was tagged out just before the runner crossed home plate.
Josh Bushong doubled in a run in the second inning, but the Falcons stranded two runners in scoring position that inning.

Riverdale’s Evan Wolfe (6) is thrown out after being caught in a rundown. Third baseman Todd Carter (left) fielded the ball and eventually made the tag on Wolfe in a 9-3 win.

“Brendan Bishop really battled to get out of it to limit the damage to just one run an inning,” Amicone said. “Of course, Adam Hartz did a nice job of coming in and throwing strikes and getting us out of the game.”
Bishop (3-1) allowed six hits and one walk with three striekouts, while Hartz gave up just one walk with four strikeouts in relief.
Shultis (1-2) surrendered seven hits and four walks in 3 2/3 innings. Reliever Dillon Farrow gave up just one hit and one walk in 2 1/3 innings.
“I definitely feel like we can get this back together,” Wolfe said. “We just need to put both winning formulas back together and we’ll be just fine.”
Brett Parrish had a pair of singles and scored a run to lead the Falcons at the plate.
Riverdale plays at 5 p.m. today at Fostoria St. Wendelin. Wynford travels to Crestline for a game at 4:30 p.m. Friday.

Score by innings
Riverdale    111    000    0    — 3 6 5
Wynford    231    201    x    — 9 8 4
WP: Bishop (3-1); LP: Shultis (1-2).
2B: Bushong (R), Shultis (R).
HR: Hartz (W).

By LONNIE McMILLAN
Sports editor

Posted by Daily Chief on April 12, 2012. Filed under Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry