District baseball: Highland rolls to win over Strongsville

STRONGSVILLE — The Highland baseball team usually doesn't need to score a lot of runs when ace left-hander Hunter Winston is on the mound, but the Hornets scored a ton anyway on a hot Tuesday afternoon. Ohio recruit Winston was his usual dominating self and the Highland offense gave him enough support for five starts as the 13th-seeded Hornets rolled to a 14-0 six-inning win over No. 7 seed Strongsville in a Division I, Northeast 6 District semifinal played on the Mustangs' home field. Next up for Highand (17-10) is a district final against 12th-seeded St. Edward (17-11), which held on to beat No. 4 Brunswick (19-10) 5-4 in the first semifinal of the day. The district final has been moved from Thursday to Friday at 4 p.m. due to St. Edward's graduation. Strongsville finished 16-10. "I feel like we can win a game 1-0 when Hunter is pitching," third baseman Shane Cope said. "He's so dominant. He's a great pitcher." Now 7-1 with a 0.64 ERA and 101 strikeouts in 54 1/3 innings, Winston's velocity wasn't as high as normal but he used pinpoint control to continually work ahead in the count against the Mustangs, whose game plan clearly was to take pitches and hope he eventually tired. Using his customary fastball, curveball, slider mix, Winston gave up just three singles while walking none and striking out nine, including five straight in a stretch that covered the first through third innings. The senior got all the run support he needed when Cope (sacrifice fly, 3 RBIs, run) belted a two-out, two-run double to deep right-center in the top of the first. "It's great when you go out not having much pressure," Winston said of the early lead. "You don't feel like you have to execute every pitch. You do, but there's a lot more room for error." By the time the one-sided game was over, the Hornets had belted 17 hits, nine of which came in a crazy 10-run sixth that saw Highland send 14 batters to the plate and have everyone in the order score, though only two of the runs were earned due to two big infield errors by the Mustangs. Eight Highland players collected hits in the inning, which featured the second, third and fourth Strongsville pitchers of the day, with leadoff man Noah Radigan, who walked twice and scored once earlier in the game, collecting a pair of run-scoring singles and scoring two more times in the frame. "It's so much fun when everyone, one through nine, can score and hit the ball like that," Radigan said. "When we have that kind of consistency, we're hard to beat." Up 2-0 after one, the Hornets added a run in the second when Jayden Barr doubled down the left-field line, moved to third on a groundout and scored on an unselfish grounder to the right side by No. 9 hitter Landon Sooy, who later added a single, sacrifice bunt and two-run double, the latter two coming in the epic sixth inning. The Hornets then made it 4-0 in the fourth when Casey Myser scored on a Cope sacrifice fly. "Everyone was doing their job moving runners," Cope said. "We weren't trying to pull the ball. When everyone does their job, good things happen. That's good baseball." By the time this one mercifully ended, a lot of Highland players had contributed. Myser finished with two singles, a double, an RBI and scored three runs, Winston had three singles, an RBI and scored once, John Toth had a single, double, two RBIs and scored once, Barr singled, doubled, scored twice and drove in one and Peyton Ganda singled and walked. Next up is St. Edward on Friday. "We've got to do our thing," Radigan said. "We can't worry about what they have to offer. We know what we have to offer. We're going to take that to them and play our game." Contact Rick Noland at (330) 721-4046 or rnoland@medina-gazette.com. Follow him @RickNoland on X. Highland 14, Strongsville 0 (6 inn.) Division I, Northeast 6 District Semifinal HIGHLAND 210 01(10) — 14 17 1 STRONGSVILLE 000 000 — 0 3 2 WP — Hunter Winston (7-1) 6 innings, 0 walks, 9 strikeouts. LP — Austin Payne (3-1) 4 innings, 4 runs, 4 earned, 8 hits, 3 walks, 2 strikeouts. Highland (17-10) — Noah Radigan 2 singles, 2 walks, 2 RBIs, 3 runs; Casey Myser 2 singles, double, RBI, 3 runs; Winston 3 singles, RBI, run; Shane Cope double, sacrifice fly, 3 RBIs, run; Peyton Ganda single, walk; John Toth single, double, 2 RBIs, run; Jayden Barr single, double, RBI, 2 runs; Landon Sooy single, double, sacrifice, 3 RBIs, run. Strongsville (16-10).