Miller pitches Range to title share

At 11-0, the Raiders clinched a tie for the Inter-County League title.
By JOHN BASSETTI
VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF
BERLIN CENTER -- Senior Bob Miller pitched a 13-strikeout, one-hitter Friday as South Range beat Western Reserve, 2-0, to clinch a tie for the Inter-County League baseball championship with an 11-0 record.
The win pushed Range's overall record to 19-3. The Raiders are the No. 1 seed in the New Middletown sectional tournament.
It was Range's second win over Reserve, which slipped to 15-6, 10-3. Reserve was beaten by the Raiders a few weeks ago, 12-2. The Blue Devils' other league loss was to Jackson-Milton.
First loss, lone hit
Junior Brandon Keck suffered his first defeat after five wins.
Luke Srock had the lone hit for Reserve, a leadoff double in the second inning. Srock is Reserve's top hitter.
"Everything was working," said Miller (6-2). "I was struggling before today -- a little here and there with certain pitches that weren't working for me.
"Today, I had coach [Brian] Tarajack calling my pitches," he said. "Usually I call my own. The pitch selection helped set up hitters for me. The location was up to me. I was keeping them off balance with my offspeed and fastball pitches."
Coach Dan Szolek called it a solid performance.
"When he throws three pitches for strikes, he's pretty much unhittable," Szolek said of Miller's fastball, curve and slider. "Giving up one hit shows how tough he is."
Szolek said that Tarajack was calling the pitches because Miller had become predictable, especially in his last outing.
"We pretty much let him control what he throws, but we had the pitching coach call the pitches tonight. I'd say you'd have to agree that he was pretty successful. He threw 92 pitches in seven innings, which is pretty good."
Scoring sequence
Range scored once in the second inning and again in the fifth.
After Brad Johnson walked, stole second and got to third on a passed ball, Tom Kimmel hit a grounder past third baseman Srock to score Johnson with the game's first run. Kimmel easily made a double out of the hit, which was to Srock's right side and continued into the outfield.
Srock's double a half-inning later was the same type of hard-hit grounder past Range third baseman Jason King.
After Jason Young walked, Reserve had runners on first and second. Then Johnson caught a high fly by Keck for the second out and Adam McDougal followed with a strikeout to end the Blue Devils' lone threat.
Jeff Johnston was hit by a pitch to lead off the top of the fifth to set up Range's second run. Pinch-runner Brian Novak quickly got to second on Hogie Walley's sacrifice bunt and Novak reached third on Keck's wild pitch.
Novak scored when Jimmy Sanders' grounder went under the glove of shortstop Chris Mountain.
Young replaced Keck in the sixth after the junior permitted just three hits -- doubles by Kimmel and Johnson and a single by Walley.
Range's other three hits came off of Young in the seventh inning -- by Robert Bates, Nick Opritza and Walley, who was the only Raider with two hits.
Better
Western Reserve coach Paul Henderson said that Miller was better Friday than he was in their last meeting.
"His curveball definitely had us screwing our cleats into the batter's box. It was snapping off nice today. I don't think it was working against us the last time."