PBR Spotlight Game: No. 3 Defiance vs. No. 6 Wauseon

March 30, 2013

Dylan Hefflinger
Senior Writer and Northwest Ohio Scout

WAUSEON - To open the 2013 season you can't ask for more than a battle of preseason top ten teams, No. 3 Defiance and No. 6 Wauseon. This battle went to the Bulldogs, 10-3.
Austin Hancock collision at 1st

Defiance jumped out to an early 3-0 lead in the first. With one out Derek Turner ripped a shot up the middle scoring senior Dom Romero and moving Rob Zeigler to third, both got on base with back-to-back walks. After a strikeout and walk, senior Weston Rivers hit a line drive single up the middle off of Wauseon starter Jake Trejo (South Carolina Sumpter recruit) to score Zeigler and Turner.

After the Indians scored one in the bottom half, Defiance opened up the lead to 7-1 in the second with the help of Wauseon miscues. An error on Wauseon's third basemen and a error on Trejo on a sac bunt attempt put two on. After a strikeout, Zeigler roped a line drive to right for a sac fly and Turner followed with an RBI single. A walk and error loaded the bases for Rivers and the lefty ripped a two-out two RBI single up the middle to put the Dogs up 7-1.

“We didn’t make some routine plays early, we gave them some extra outs and they had some big two-out hits, but that’s baseball,” stated Wauseon head coach Trent Thomas. “When you give a great baseball team like that breathing room, they’re going to take advantage of it.”

Jacob Green Scoring

“They had some mistakes and we were able to take advantage of that in the first two innings,” said Defiance mentor Tom Held. “In our scrimmages, our opponents (Lakota West, Hamilton Badin and Vandalia Buntler) didn’t make any errors, but today we got those breaks and it was good to take advantage of them. Weston (Rivers) had a great day, driving in big runs with two outs. You take those away and it’s an entirely different ballgame.”
Dom Gentile backhand

Wauseon did have its chances later in the game, but dazzling defensive plays from Defiance halted all the Indians' opportunities. In the third inning junior Dom Gentile came up big with two outs, Wauseon had Trejo on third and senior Collin Bzovi on second with University of Toledo recruit Josh Cales at the plate. The Indians first baseman hit a hard grounder that looked like it would get down the third-base line to bring in two and cut into the Bulldogs advantage. But Gentile not only got to the ball, he came up throwing to just gun down Cales at first to end the threat to keep the Defiance lead at 7-1.

Junior outfielder Jacob Green added a pair of web gems later in the game, an over-the-shoulder catch on the warning track in right field to end one Wauseon threat and also had a diving catch coming in on the ball to aid the Defiance pitchers.

Defiance returns to action on Thursday for its home opener against Findlay, while Wauseon is back in action Monday at Rossford.

Linescore

Defiance 340 002 1 - 10 10 2

Wauseon 100 100 1 - 3 4 4

Records: Defiance 1-0, Wauseon 0-1.

Winning pitcher: Rob Zeigler (5 innings, 2 runs, 3 hits, 5 strikeouts, 3 walks). Other: Weston Rivers.

Losing pitcher: Jake Trejo (5 innings, 7 runs, 5 hits, 6 strikeouts, 5 walks). Other: Dugan Shadbolt.

Leading hitters: (Defiance, 10 hits) - Dom Romero 2 singles; Rob Ziegler double; Derek Turner 2 singles; Weston Rivers 2 singles, 5 RBI; Wade Verhoff double. (Wauseon, 4 hits).