Junior Brady Wiler's complete-game, three-hit effort directed the New Bloomfield Wildcats' opening-round district triumph.
Wiler threw 90 pitches, struck out four, walked three and allowed an earned run to steer No. 3 seed New Bloomfield to a 7-1 victory over the No. 6 Russellville Indians in Class 2, District 8 play Monday afternoon.
New Bloomfield (12-9) will play either No. 2 seed Vienna or No. 7 Calvary Lutheran in a semifinal at 7 tonight.
Senior center fielder Tucker Lane's sacrifice fly scored senior left fielder Sam Niedergerke to open the Wildcats' scoring in the bottom of the first inning.
Wiler had a no-hitter through four innings before Russellville broke it up with a leadoff single in the fifth.
"(Wiler) was ahead all day, and when he wasn't, he battled back," New Bloomfield head coach Justin Forsythe said. "He also benefitted from some very good defense."
Junior third baseman Tyler Fennewald's two-out, two-run home run to left in the bottom of the fifth scored Lane and stretched the Wildcats' advantage to 3-0.
"We didn't make very good adjustments at the plate until the fifth inning, when we put some very good at-bats together," Forsythe said of his team's 13-hit attack. "We stopped going after the breaking balls and put ourselves in better (pitch) counts."
After the Indians tallied their lone run in the top of the sixth, New Bloomfield used four consecutive RBI doubles with two outs in its half of the inning to produce its final runs.
Niedergerke, junior shortstop Grant Nichols, Lane and Fennewald hit the doubles in succession to round out the Wildcats' scoring.
Niedergerke finished 3-for-4 with an RBI, a pair of doubles and scored twice. Lane and junior catcher Derek Shikles were both 2-for-3, while Fennewald and Nichols each finished 2-for-4.
Senior first baseman Boyd Kempker was 1-for-3 and Wiler went 1-for-4.