One Step Closer: Norwayne's win over Waynedale puts Bobcats ahead in WCAL baseball race

APPLE CREEK — About 21 hours earlier, Norwayne left its home field wondering what could have been.

But it also knew the potential for redemption came with the sunrise.

A day after watching Waynedale rally for an extra-innings victory, the Bobcats jumped on the Golden Bears in the first inning and never looked back on their way to a huge 8-4 Wayne County Athletic League win.

"Since back in October during our offseason lifts, we've had these couple days circled on our calendar," Norwayne senior Mike Steingass said. "We always look forward to them."

With the victory, Norwayne pulled ahead of Waynedale by a game in WCAL standings, taking a big step closer to a third straight conference title, including a golden opportunity to win it outright.

"It means a lot," Dichler said of Norwayne's pursuit of another league title. "Especially the past couple years, we've split the county championship. We're looking to win it by ourselves this year. There's definitely a lot of determination and fire."

The Bobcats had three games remaining WCAL play after Wednesday, facing Smithville in a make-up game this week before the final series of the season against Northwestern next week. A 3-0 mark in those games would clinch an outright league title while two wins would guarantee Norwayne at least a share of its third straight WCAL crown.

Ashton Snyder breaking the game open for Norwayne was only fitting after Tuesday’s loss too.

After going all eight innings in the 3-1 setback — surrendering no earned runs — Snyder’s bases-loaded single gave Norwayne a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Two more runs in the first gave the Bobcats a 4-0 lead from which Waynedale couldn’t recover.

"Yesterday we were all on ourselves and had a lot of pressure," Snyder said. "We wanted to come out today and play loose and play the game we always play."

Snyder added to that later in the game with an RBI single and star catcher Logan Dichler smacked a solo home run in the third to keep Norwayne in control the entire way.

Snyder and Dichler — each finished with two hits — have been two of the key cogs in a Norwayne engine that’s running strong with tournament time swiftly approaching.

The Bobcats' ace, Snyder has been one of the league's best pitchers all year and gives Norwayne a No. 1 that can go pitch for pitch with anyone come playoff time.

"He just gives that bulldog mentality of 'I'm going to make you beat me. I'm not going give up and at bat, I'm not going to give up a pitch," Norwayne coach Joe Gilmore said of Snyder.

Meanwhile, Dichler has been a fixture behind the plate for several seasons and gives the Bobcats pop in the middle of the order in addition to plus defense and other things for which stats don't quite account.

"Logan, to me, is another coach on our staff," Gilmore said. "He calls our plays, he calls our pitches. He's starting to figure out his bat. He's struggled at times trying to find himself with that but he's really hitting his stride with the bad and getting confident and being the team leader we need. As one of our captains, he's really blossomed into not just a great player but a great young man and a great leader."

The three seniors at the top of Norwayne's order — Beau Polen, Steingass and Lucas Dudte — are all capable of big games at the plate too, and each finished with a hit Wednesday, scoring five of the Bobcats' runs. Steingass went six innings on the mound, allowing nine hits and three runs while striking out four and walking one.

The series against Waynedale was a special one for the players but also the coaches. First-year Norwayne head coach Gilmore was an assistant at Waynedale before getting the job across the county.

"I've had so many memories with amazing players and amazing coaches," Gilmore said. "It's humbling to come back on the other side. At the same time, it's really cool to have my guys who have my back."

Meanwhile, back-to-back defending Division III champ Waynedale isn’t going anywhere.

"There's some belief that is starting to happen," Waynedale coach Lucas Daugherty said. "Trusting each other and trusting themselves that they can come through in those (big) moments. I think we have the pitching still to do it. We have arms that can keep us in games."

The Golden Bears might be more inexperienced than their state title teams but the one-two punch of Otto Solorzano and Shane Coblentz at the top of the rotation gives Waynedale a major edge against most teams come playoff time. It's no secret how good Solorzano is, winning big game after big game on the mound since his sophomore year, but Coblentz' emergence to replace Trey Barkman has been a major ingredient in Waynedale's 2024 success.

"The past two years, we've known he has really good stuff," Daugherty said. "There's always that next step when you have to be one of the two league starters and he's really shown that he's there to compete and to win games on top of just having good stuff. He's been awesome to have."

Waynedale normally would have pitched Coblentz in Wednesday's game but decided to go to him in relief of Solorzano to pick up the win Tuesday instead.

"When we have a chance to win a game like that, you've got to win the game that you're in before you get to the next one," Daugherty said of the decision to go to Coblentz in game one of the series. "I thought (Tuesday), we pitched really well and grinded through that game."

If the rest of the Bears — like Logan Troyer and Hudson Barkman, who each has two hits against Norwayne — can learn quickly on the fly, a Norwayne-Waynedale showdown in the postseason could be a real possibility.

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This article originally appeared on The Daily Record: Baseball: Norwayne closes in on WCAL title with win over Waynedale