Teammates congratulate Waynesfield-Goshen’s Troy Spencer after hitting a home run during Tuesday’s Division IV sectional semifinal against Perry at W-G.
WAYNESFIELD — Waynesfield-Goshen’s Jace Kauffman showed you don’t need a blazing fastball to be effective.
The Tiger sophomore, whose fastball hovers in the 70s, used an assortment of breaking balls to fire a no-hitter and help carry Waynesfield-Goshen to a 4-0 win against Perry in a Division IV sectional opener Tuesday.
With the win, the Tigers improve to 11-6 overall and travel to face St. Henry in a sectional final Thursday. Perry ends its year with a 9-14 mark.
“Without looking it has probably been about 10 years since we have won a tournament game, and I am really proud of these guys for them. It is all about them,” Tiger head coach Josh Spencer said. “Perry has a really good team and hats off to them. You know I don’t think we have beaten them three times in a season. I’m excited for the kids.”
In the regular season, W-G beat Perry 6-3, 6-3.
Perry head coach Mark Hoersten gave credit to W-G.
“They did the things that they needed to do to win and it showed,” Hoersten said. “I had a lot of confidence coming into this game. I thought we had fixed a few things that they had run on us and bunted on us. I think we took that away from them for the most part but they hit the ball and we didn’t
In his seven innings of work, Kaufman fanned nine and walked none. The Tiger hurler set down the last 11 batters he faced and had five innings where he set the Commodores down in order.
“The defense was pretty good behind him,” Spencer said. “He pounced the strike zone and he kept them off-balance all game. He is our No. 1 pitcher for a reason. He is a sophomore and we are excited what he did today and for the next two years.
“He mixes the pitches up well and hits his locations. He just kept them off-balanced. He did a really good job of keeping their top four hitters off the basepaths. We knew in order to win we were going to have to get those guys out. We couldn’t let them come to the plate with runners on.”
Perry threatened in the fourth. After opening with a strikeout, Hunter Scott reached on an error and Kauffman walked the next batter and Scott and Arder found themselves on second and third with one out. However, the Tiger sophomore fanned the next batter and then induced a groundball to escape the inning.
Kaufman’s counterpart, Brady Shively, kept the Tigers in check for the first three frames but in the fourth the Tigers manufactured a run. It opened with a single from Jayden Elliott, and after an out, he was moved to second on a sacrifice by Landen DeWitt. Garrett Stump then delivered a clutch two-out single to give the Tigers the 1-0 lead.
Waynesfield tacked on another run in the fifth and then Troy Spencer put an exclamation point on the Tigers’ offensive output when he cracked a towering home run over the left field fence with a runner on to up the Tigers’ lead to 4-0.
Shively finished the game, going six innings while scattering nine hits while fanning five and walking none.
“We had a feeling it was going to be a low-scoring game so we knew it was going to take a big performance,” Spencer said.. “We scratched a couple of runs across and then Troy (Spencer) hit the bomb in the sixth inning.
“We haven’t had a home run all year and it is a little extra special when it is your kid. That was great moment for him.”
At the plate Elliott finished 2 for 3 with an RBI and a run and Kaufman was 2 for 2 with a run.
Reach Jose Nogueras at 567-242-0468.
