Sectional baseball: C.J. Polen dominates on mound, gets plenty of support, too, as Wellington waxes Smithville

WELLINGTON — The bats came alive late in Wellington's 9-1 Division III sectional win over Smithville at Larry DeVoe Memorial Field on Monday but all the Dukes really needed was senior C.J. Polen on the mound. Polen threw a two-hitter, striking out 13 and retiring the final nine batters to help the No. 10 seed Dukes (11-9) advance to Wednesday's sectional final at Beachwood. "When I was warming up, I didn't have my stuff," Polen said. "Then, in the first inning, my fastball and curveball weren't there. Then, after I got a couple of strikeouts, I fed off of that." The 20th-seeded Smithies (7-11-1) scored first when Gavin Copenhaver tripled and came home on an Andy Navratil single. Polen recovered to strike out six straight. "C.J. was phenomenal," Wellington coach Dan Davison said. "It took him an inning to get settled in but then the old bulldog came out. Once he starts dealing, he has the flow and command of the pitches, then he's super tough to hit." The Dukes answered with a run in the bottom of the first after Riley Reyna led off by getting hit with a pitch. He came home to score on an error. Reyna also singled and scored in the fifth. "It felt amazing to come out and do our thing and get the run in the first to tie the game," Reyna said. "We knew we had to keep our energy up to be ready at the end of the game. You have to be patient in the first half of the game and slowly ease into it and I think we did a great job of that." Wellington broke the game wide open in the sixth, sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring six runs. Third baseman Trey Moore led off by getting hit by a Bryce Becker pitch, stealing second and scoring on a Kane Davison single. Later in the sixth, Moore pulled off the rare feat of getting hit by a pitch for the second time in the same inning, this time by Navratil, who came on in relief. The big blow in the sixth came from second baseman John Kinter, who smashed a double that scored Grant Kehl and Braden Hamer. Hamer also drove in the go-ahead run in the fifth, scoring Connor Sheppard. "I was just looking to drive the ball in the gap because I had been struggling the entire game," Kinter said. "All year we've been a team that just keeps fighting. We've been down a few times but we've come back because we have that fight in us. It feels really good right now. We need to carry this confidence into Beachwood and keep this thing going." The Bison downed Clearview 6-3 in another sectional Monday. While the Dukes' defense was shaky at times, Kehl, Wellington's sophomore catcher, showed off his arm by throwing out a pair of Smithies trying to steal second in the first and fourth. "That was huge," Davison said. "Anytime you can shut down an opposing runner is big. Coaches always seem to test the waters the first couple innings. If you come out on the other side of that with outs, you shift the momentum in your favor." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.