130th Article at the Independent

AMATEUR BASEBALL: Milroy Irish win Game 1 against Royals 5-0

Chris Drummond

cdrummond@marshallindependent.com

MILROY — Fresh off its first playoff series win in team history, the Ruthton amateur baseball team wanted to keep the momentum going into the next round of the Region 13C playoffs. But standing in their path was the top-seeded Milroy Irish, who had earned a first-round bye.

espite not playing in 10 days, the Irish were able to get out to a quick start and didn’t look back, taking Game 1 of their best-of-three series with a 5-0 win on Wednesday at Irish Yard.

Milroy didn’t take long to get on the board as starting catcher Derek Smith laced a ball into left field giving the Irish an early lead of 1-0. The Royals couldn’t find their bats in this ballgame as they are coming off of scoring 24 runs in their past two victories. However, Mitchell Biever for the Royals had multiple hits in the ballgame but the rest of the team only got one hit total.

Outfielder Anthony Dolan would bloop a single into center field scoring the second run of the game for the Irish and Smith would add a solo home run to his perfect night as he went 3 for 3 with a walk and two RBIs. Starting pitcher for the Irish Hunter Wienhoff, who had a no-hitter performance in his last outing, kept Ruthton’s bats at bay and secured the Irish a Game 1 victory at 5-0. Wienhoff pitched a complete game and struck out nine while only giving up three hits and hasn’t allowed a run in the last two outings.

Manager of the Irish Anthony Dolan spoke on the team’s performance in the game.

“First and foremost, Hunter Wienhoff pitched a heck of a game,” Dolan said. “We were a little rusty because of the layoff but we still put good bats together and was able to win.”

Manager for the Royals Eric Wiering spoke on his team’s performance as well in defeat.

“We hit the ball hard and we saw their No. 1 guy, he pitched well but that’s the way baseball goes sometimes,” Wiering said. “To stave off elimination, bats gotta come alive and we have to play solid defense.”

This is the Royals’ sixth game in 11 days and fatigue could have played a factor into it, Wiering also mentioned. Friday night will be Game 2 in Ruthton at 7:30 p.m.

Hitting: Ruthton (Biever 2H, Gylling 1H); Milroy Irish (Smith 3H, 2 RBIs; Anthony Dolan 1H, RBI; Lanoue 1H, RBI; Moses Dolan 1H, RBI).

Pitching (IP-R-ER-H-BB-SO): Ruthton (NR); Milroy Irish (Wienhoff 9-0-0-3-1-9).