Amherst powers its way bast Vermilion in both baseball teams' season opener

AMHERST — Three home runs and three pitchers combining on a no-hitter. Amherst might just be better than it was a year ago. Senior Landon Wolf and juniors Eli Toyoda and Cooper Bingham each went deep and seniors Brody Glick, Spencer Cain and Zander Hopkins combined for 10 strikeouts as the Comets kicked off defense of their Division II regional championship Sunday with a 14-0 win over Vermilion in five innings. Amherst (1-0) got the season started in style by scoring four runs on five hits in the first inning with the key hit coming off the bat of Toyoda, whose two-out double scored Harrison Schneider and Zach Diedrick. "We worked our tail off in the weight room all offseason and in the preseason, too, so it was massive to come out and have a big first inning," Toyoda said. "We're always looking to go first pitch. When we see that first pitch softball, we attack it." Toyoda followed with a solo home run in his next at-bat to lead off the third inning and singled and scored on a wild pitch in the fourth. The 10-run mercy rule ending the game early was the only thing that kept Toyoda from a chance to hit for the cycle. "It was awesome to see everyone on the team hitting today," Toyoda said. "It will give us so much momentum moving forward." Toyoda and Bingham each had three hits for the Comets, who pounded out 14 as a team. Wolf, Harrison Schneider and Zach Diedrick had two hits apiece. The Comets scored two runs in the second, one more in the third and put the game out of reach with a seven-run fourth inning. In the fourth inning, Amherst scored three runs thanks to Vermilion wild pitches before Bingham delivered a three-run shot over the center field fence. "I saw the hit I wanted and it hit it as hard as I could," Bingham said. "That was the hardest hit ball I've ever had in my life." Amherst, which started the season ranked No. 1 in the Ohio High School Baseball Coaches Association Division II poll, had eight of its nine starters score at least one run. The Comets only scored 14 or more runs four times last season on its way to the Division II state championship game but Sunday it was the Amherst pitching that was most impressive, allowing just one runner to advance past first base. "Our pitchers were great today," Amherst coach Matt Rositano said. "We knew with a conference game coming up (today) that it might kinda be a bullpen game for us." Glick struck out five in two innings while only allowing a walk and a hit batter. Cain threw two perfect innings, striking out three. Hopkins pitched the fifth inning and struck out two. "I told the guys a couple of weeks ago I think one through 10 we might have one of the best, if not the best, pitching staff in the state of Ohio," Rositano said. "Everyone talks about those top end guys, Cael (Charles), Schneider and Cole (Charles), but if we can get outings like we had today from everybody else, that just gives us so many more options." Vermilion (0-1) will be back on the road today as it travels to Clyde. "It's early in the season, we've got a lot of underclassmen and there's nothing like opening up with one of, if not the best teams in the state of Ohio," first-year Vermilion coach Gehrig Gabrie said. "I told the team at the beginning of the year that we scheduled some better competition and we know it's going to pay off for us at the the end of year." One of the highlights of the day for the Sailors was Gabrie coming back to his alma mater in his first game as a head coach and coaching against his father, Greg, an Amherst assistant. "To share my first head coaching game with my dad was a special moment for me," Gabrie said. "My dad coached me my whole life. My first coaching experience was here at Amherst with him as an assistant coach. I made the move to Vermilion and it was great to come back and open up coaching against my dad and my good friends on the coaching staff over there." Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.