WOOSTER — The big story was the cold. But the other story, Waynedale baseball is still playing at an elite level and Shane Coblentz — he’s scary. That combination proved to be too much for Triway in a battle of rivals, that saw the Golden Bears head back to Apple Creek with a 9-1 win and owners of a 7-0 record.
“We knew that they were a good team coming in,” Titans coach Justin McDowell said. “Doc (Lucas Daugherty) does a great job, we saw them last year, they ended our season, and they brought back a lot of guys.
“When we saw they pulled (Shane) Coblentz early on Monday against Dalton, we put two and two together. We knew that we were going to see him today and the way we judge things is that we want to test ourselves, see where we’re at. They were better today, and we’ll go from there.”
Out of the gate though, Triway senior righthander Ron Bricker matched Coblentz donut for donut on the scoreboard. Then in the third, Bricker hit Coblentz and Cameron Miller drove him home with a two-out RBI double.
With Coblentz on the hill, that was about all that was needed as the Waynedale ace overcame the elements and the Titans. He fired four shutout no-hit frames, his only blemish coming on a fourth-inning walk and a hit batter as he finished with 10 strikeouts. Needing 59 pitches, Coblentz fired 42 of them for strikes as he improved to 4-0 on the year, knocked his ERA to 0.41 and has now struck out 38 over 17 innings.
“It was really tough out there,” Coblentz said. “Not being able to feel your fingers, it’s tough to be able to get different grips, but I had to battle through it.”
As for his key to doing that.
“Taking time before the game to get locked in,” he added. “We do a lot of meditation and that kind of locks you in.”
The ace was happier with the 11 hits by the team and the ability to string some of them together. Even with the team’s quick start to the season, the lack of ability to put hits together was something that was holding the team back, but for a lack of working at it.
“Early on, it’s been quite a struggle to put hits together,” Coblentz said. “But today, I feel that the whole team played well, not just me. We had good approaches at the plate, and we got it done.”
In a five-run fourth to blow the game open, Jordan Miller led off with a double and Josh Yoder followed him up with a single to put runners at the corner. Brayden Steiner doubled home a run with Yoder scoring via an error and Logan Troyer made it 4-0 with an RBI single and Waynedale had the engines rolling leading 6-0. Coblentz launched a first-pitch blast over the leftfield fence for a solo shot to help cap the big day.
“It was a 2-0 count, he gave me two curveballs out of the zone, and I was expecting a fastball just to get back into the count,” Coblentz said. “I didn’t miss it.”
The Golden Bears didn’t miss often on the day as Yoder paced the team, going 3-for-4 with Steiner and Schlabach both finishing with a pair of hits apiece.
Triway (5-2) got on the board in the sixth when Alex Shearer lined an RBI single to score Brody Snyder, who delivered the Titans first hit in the game earlier in the frame. For the Titans, Braylen Miller and Austin Patterson both ...
