By Alex Schillig
PBR Ohio Assistant Scouting Director

CANTON, OH - On a beautiful afternoon at Thurman Munson Stadium, the Wooster Generals looked to upset the No. 5 ranked Massillon Jackson Polar Bears in an intense district semifinal match up.  

From the start, this game looked to be a pitchers duel as Wooster's junior left handed pitcher Ryan Lally went head to head with Jackson's sophomore right handed pitcher Sam Miller.  Both pitchers carved up the opposing lineups going the distance for nine full innings.  

The first team to make a real threat at scoring a run came by the Wooster squad in the top of the second.  Junior Aaron Saal led off the inning with a singled up the middle, and Ryan Lally followed him up with a single of his own.  Jackson starter Miller was able to stay composed in a tough spot with no outs as he induced a well turned 4-6-3 double play, and then went onto strikeout the final hitter keeping the score locked at 0-0.  

After Wooster's threat to score, Sam Miller really settled in and was only getting stronger as the game progressed.  

With the score still locked at 0-0, the atmosphere at Thurman Munson Stadium started to buzz for the start of the seventh inning.

Both pitchers were not willing to give up the ball as they set down their opposing lineup with quick 1-2-3 innings in the seventh.  Through seven innings, Miller had only allowed four hits while his counterpart Lally had only allowed two.  With the success both starters had been having, both head coaches knew they had to let their starter go the distance. 

In the top of the ninth, Miller got into some trouble with two outs.  The Jackson defense who had looked fantastic all day made a throwing error on a slow chopper up the middle, and then Miller hit the next batter putting the go ahead run in scoring position.  It looked as if the wheels were about to fall off for the Polar Bears.  To no surprise though, Miller kept his cool inducing a ground ball for the final out of the inning.  

The Polar Bear lineup struggled all day getting on base, but in the bottom of the ninth they found some life thanks to senior Kyle Mottice (pictured).  Mottice started the inning with an infield single, and decided to do the rest of the work himself.  Mottice stole second, and then went onto steal third as well; With only one out, this set the table for right handed hitter Seth Vellucci. Vellucci did what was asked, driving a ball to center that allowed Mottice to tag and score giving the Polar Bears a walk-off winner.  

Massillon Jackson now moves onto the District Final where they will take on Uniontown Lake at 4:30 Today.  

To view scouting notes from this game, please visit the Ohio High School Scouting Blog. The blog gets updated throughout the week.

To discuss this game, please visit our partner JJHuddle.