'We belong': Wooster beats St. Ignatius for second straight Div. I district title

CLEVELAND — Wooster baseball is here to stay.

It didn’t matter the Generals were playing a school with more than twice their male enrollment. It didn’t matter they were playing St. Ignatius at the Wildcats’ home field. It didn’t matter they have graduated some of their best players in program history over the last several seasons. It didn’t matter starting pitcher Kyle Oswald exited the game in the second inning with an injury.

Wooster made all the plays that mattered Thursday, beating perennial power St. Ignatius 7-2 for a second straight district title. The Generals move on to next week’s Division I regional semifinals at Oberlin College, facing off with Twinsburg in the 2 p.m. game May 30.

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"They know we belong," Wooster coach Steve Young said. "They know going into the season we're going to play a tough non-league schedule. Our league this year was tough as well. Our guys want to play the best."

As a smaller Division I school, the Generals have run into bigger schools in the tournament frequently over the years, prematurely exiting the postseason after successful regular seasons in a variety of sports. The degree of difficulty to make a run is high for Wayne County’s biggest school.

But only nine players take the field at a time, and Wooster made the surface at Talty Field in Cleveland its home once again, beating the Wildcats in the district final for the second season in a row.

"Our No. 1 goal every year — and we don't shy away from talking about it — is to get to Canal Park and win a state championship. I guess, at the end of the day, if that's not your goal, what are you doing? To steal a quote from Herm Edwards, 'You play to win the game.'

"For us, this isn't our goal. We talked about it in the outfield (after the win). We're happy but we're not satisfied. We want to go further than last year. We want to get to the state championship game."

After some dramatic wins on the district stage the past two seasons, Thursday's win was a no-doubter. Wooster sprayed the ball all over the field, took extra bases and didn’t give Ignatius anything easy. All things considered, it was perhaps the best all-around performance for Wooster baseball in recent history.

Every phase of the game looked easy for a Wooster team that’s been locked in for a solid month, winning 13 of its last 16 following an 11-1 loss to Ohio Cardinal Conference foe New Philadelphia.

The lineup that’s been without perhaps its best bat (the injured Ben Winge), was relentless, with eight different players tagging Ignatius pitchers Xander Gendics and Brandon Rose for a combined 14 hits. That number doubled the hits produced by an Ignatius lineup that featured multiple Div. I college commits.

"We like the pressure," Wooster junior Hayden Meese said. "We like being the underdogs. Any team that's bigger than us, we don't care about how many commits they've got. We don't care about any of that. We just come in and we play our game, and we want it more than them."

Meese did more damage than anyone, driving in two runs during Wooster four-run second inning and another run in the fourth to give the Generals a 5-0 lead during a three-hit performance. Sam Nielsen did damage with bat as well, bringing in the sixth run of the game in the fifth on one of his two hits. No. 7 hitter Dylan Hudson and No. 9 Henry Wilds had two hits as well, keeping the Wildcats defense busy no matter the spot in the order.

As good as Nielsen was at the plate against the ‘Cats, he was better on the mound. The junior entered the game with two outs in the second after starter Oswald felt something off with his arm and exited. And Nielsen never came out.

He went after Ignatius hitters, allowing precious little solid contact during 5⅓ innings, even on a day when he admitted his off-speed stuff wasn't working the way he wanted it to. It didn't matter as Ignatius struggled to string together productive at bats until it was too late, scoring both of its runs in the top of the seventh.

"This whole year I've been coming in in tough situations," said Nielsen, who struck out six batters while walking four. "I've gotten used to it. From the start of the game, I'm expecting to get that call at any minute. So, I'm always ready to roll."

In the field, Wooster didn't make an error, making sure Ignatius only got the runs and baserunners they deserved.

Now Wooster’s focus is on advancing one step further than it did a year ago, when it lost in the regional semifinals to Medina.

Or even further.

To Canal Park.

This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Baseball: Wooster wins second straight district title