ASHLAND — For area teams competing in the 28th Wendy’s Spring Classic, competition was more important than wins and losses.
The annual showcase event concluded Saturday under partly sunny skies and temperatures in the mid-50s. For Madison coach Tim Niswander, the weekend was just what the Rams needed.
“We played really good teams and we saw really good pitching, which we don’t always see,” Niswander said after Madison’s 7-3 loss to Amherst Steele at Brookside West on Saturday. “Because of that, I think we’re a better team. We put ourselves in situations where we had to compete and we got better.
“We could have gone out this weekend and played bad teams and put three wins up and talked about how great our record was or we could come over here and get better. We came over here and got better.”
Madison and Steele were in a four-team pool with Norwayne and Elyria. Steele won the pool with a 3-0 record.
The Rams (8-6) fell to Norwayne and Ohio State-bound pitcher Kennedy Kay 4-0 on Friday before bouncing back with an 8-1 win over Elyria in the first of two games Saturday.
“We need to see this type of competition,” Niswander said. “We want to be successful in the league and we want to be successful in the tournament.
“If we get beat once or twice because we’re playing really good teams then so be it.”
Hillsdale coach Hannah Moore agreed. The Division IV Falcons were 1-2 in a pool that included heavyweights Keystone, Canfield and Centerville.
“We definitely played some very good competition this weekend,” Moore said. “We saw some really good things and we saw some things we really need to work on.”
Hillsdale opened with a 3-1 win over Keystone on Friday. The Falcons lost to Canfield 7-6 and Centerville 7-2 on Saturday.
“We try to make our schedule difficult,” Moore said. “We’ve got to work on getting better for the tournament. That is what our goal is.
“This weekend was good for us. We learned some things and we’re going to keep building from there.”
Ashland and Loudonville both competed in Pool B. The Arrows won the pool with a 3-0 record while Loudonville was 1-2.
Ashland opened with a 6-3 win over Loudonville on Friday. The Arrows knocked off Perry 3-2 and Mathews 7-5 on Saturday.
The Redbirds beat Mathews 4-2 in their first game Saturday. Loudonville closed out the event with a 9-0 loss to Perry.
The area’s other entrant, Ontario, was 0-2 on the weekend. The Warriors opened with an 11-3 loss to Strasburg-Franklin on Thursday and fell 18-7 to Milford on Saturday.
Ontario was originally slated to play Gahanna Lincoln in Saturday’s finale but Lincoln had to withdraw because of COVID-19 contact tracing protocols.
Lincoln’s withdrawal was the only hiccup in an otherwise flawless weekend. The last two Wendy’s Spring Classics were postponed because of inclement weather (2019) and the coronavirus pandemic (2020).
“It went about as well as we could have hoped for,” tournament director John Davis said while shielding his eyes from the sun outside the press box at the No. 1 field at Brookside West. “The sun even made an appearance. That is very un-Wendy’s-like.”
