Bradford’s Landon Monnin reacts after hitting a home run Monday night against Fort Loramie at Fort Loramie High School in a D-IV district semifinal.
Photos Provided By Don Selanders
Bradford pitcher Tucker Miller fires a strike to the plate Monday night.
Photos Provided By Don Selanders
FORT LORAMIE — First-year Bradford baseball coach Bill Sturwold returned to familiar grounds Monday.
The Hall of Fame coach faced Fort Loramie — a team he coached to two state titles — in a Division IV district semifinal.
And like he did so many times at Loramie, Sturwold came away with another big win.
The Railroaders, 20-10, knocked off the top seed and sixth-ranked team in the state 2-0 to advance to a district title game Wednesday.
The Railroaders will play the Troy Christian-Twin Valley South winner at a site to be determined.
Tucker Miller continued the family tradition of coming up big in the biggest moments for the Railroader.
His sisters, Skipp and Austy Miller led Bradford to a D-IV state title berth two years ago and Skipp was recently named Mid-American Conference freshman Pitcher of the Year at Ohio University.
Miller threw a three-hit shutout, striking out nine, walking five and hitting one batter to run his record to 8-2 on the season and improve his ERA that was .892 coming into the game. It was also his first high school shutout.
He got all the runs he would need in the top of the second when Landon Monnin hit a leadoff home run.
Miller then helped himself in the third inning.
He was hit by a pitch and scored on a double by Landon Wills.
Miller got a big double play from his defense in the sixth, while pitching a masterpiece.
Colton Gambill also had a double in the game for Bradford and Miller and Gage Shafer had base hits.
