Trevor Brubaker picked up the win for Northmor against Ridgedale on Monday and also helped his cause with two hits and three RBIs.
Rob Hamilton | Morrow County Sentinel
Northmor took advantage of Ridgedale wildness on the mound in easily topping the Rockets by a 14-0 margin in their first-round contest in the Division IV baseball playoffs.
The Golden Knights finished with eight hits over the course of the five-inning game, but were also able to take advantage of seven walks and five batters hit by pitch in stringing together a pair of big innings.
“You couldn’t get your feet set in there because you didn’t know what was coming at you, but they did a good job of getting some big hits when we needed them,” said head coach Buck Workman.
After a scoreless first inning, Northmor took control of the game by tallying eight runs in the second. After the Rockets got the first Golden Knight out, both Cooper Thomas and starting pitcher Trevor Brubaker were hit by pitches, leading to Caiden Martinez driving in the game’s first run with a single.
A wild pitch would make it a 2-0 contest. Then, with two outs, Cole Cuffman tripled to make it 3-0. The Rockets then hit Grant Bentley and Bohdi Workman to load the bases again. A walk issued to Drew Hammond brought one run in and a double by Garrett Harvey added two more runs to the Northmor total. Thomas would then be walked and Brubaker followed with a two-run single to stake Northmor to an eight-run lead.
The team would continue to pour it on in the third inning. Bryce Cooper opened the inning by drawing a walk and then would steal second. With one out, Bentley was walked and Bohdi Workman was hit to load the bases. One run would score on a wild pitch and Hammond was then walked to load the bases again. The score would become 10-0 on a groundout by Harvey and Thomas would provide two more runs with a hit. Brubaker and Skyler Webb both would also drive in runs before the inning was over.
While the team tallied 14 runs over those two innings, strong pitching ensuring they would only need one of them. Four Golden Knights combined on a no-hitter, only giving up a pair of walks to the Rockets. Brubaker pitched the first two innings and Hammond, Cooper and Sawyer Bailey followed with one inning each. The quartet recorded a total of 12 strikeouts in a dominating performance.
“I think it ended up being a combined no-hitter for those guys, so kudos to them,” said Buck Workman. “That was the plan — get everyone kind of a bullpen session in, so we have everyone on deck for Mechanicsburg (in Wednesday’s sectional final), who’s going to be a real tough test. They’re 15-4, I believe, and they’re a really good team. And we also saw what happened last year in our district semifinal game. It went 15 innings, so you never know what you’re going to need.”
With things about to get much tougher in the tournament when fifth-seeded Mechanicsburg making the trip up to Northmor, the coach was happy his players were able to put forth a strong performance against Ridgedale.
“You never know what you’re getting into,” said Workman. “It’s some of these guys’ first tournament game, so how are they going to respond to that? They did a good job. I thought we played pretty well.”
Rob Hamilton can be reached at 419-946-3010, ext. 1807. Connect with him on Twitter at @SportsMCS
