Two days, two no-hitters for Edison

VERMILION — Edison recorded its second no-hitter in as many days Tuesday when Bryson Wittmer and Chaz Smith combined to dominate on the mound in an 8-2 win over Vermilion. Wittmer went the first five innings and struck out 12. He walked eight and gave up the first run of the game. The hard-throwing left-hander has worked 13 innings this season, striking out 29 and allowing only one hit. "I felt great. I wasn't feeling too great throughout the day," Wittmer said. "Once I got on the mound I had to change the narrative. I got to the game, took some ibuprofen, start feeling a little more comfortable. "After the first inning I got dialed in. I changed to the stretch after the windup wasn't working for me. Defense made plays when needed and Tristian (Wetherill) did a great job behind the plate." Wittmer's pitch count hit 100 after five innings, so a complete game was out of the question. "Bryson didn't necessarily have his best stuff, but he made the pitches when he needed to," Edison coach Sean Hoover said. "That's the sign of a good pitcher and some maturity. In the majors, everybody doesn't have their best stuff every day. They battle and find enough. He got us through five and that was big. Chaz came in and cleaned it up and threw strikes." Smith got the final six outs. The last two came on a pitcher's best friend: a double play. Third baseman Owen Price fielded a hard ground ball and fired to second baseman Brody McFadden, who made a nice turn and relayed to first baseman Eli Hermes to finish off the road win. "Throwing strikes and defense is the name of the game," Hoover said. "When your defense plays well and you don't let a lot of free runners on base you got a chance for good things to happen. That's not something we did last week very well (in three straight losses), but we've been doing better this week. We want to keep growing and getting better every day." The Chargers improved to 5-3 overall and 2-0 in the SBC Bay Division. Wittmer's last inning consisted of two strikeouts and Wetherill throwing out a runner trying to steal third. Smith then capped the no-hitter, following up on Hermes' no-hitter Monday against Huron. "That goes to show our coaching staff and the pitchers we have at Edison," Wittmer said. "Eli, amazing pitcher after breaking his arm last year and throwing a no-hitter in seven yesterday. Couple things go differently today I think I could've gone seven, but it didn't. Chaz came in and finished it for me and it felt really good." Vermilion (2-5, 1-2) took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Noah Penton led off with a walk and scored after two more walks and a pitch that got away. "A guy like (Wittmer), there's a reason he's going where he's going next year (Louisville)," Vermilion coach Gehrig Gabrie said. "We tried to prep our guys to stay in their zone and don't chase, because if he buries us in counts then it's really hard to get hits and guys on base." Edison took control with six runs in the third, all scoring with two out. The Chargers were aided by a couple Vermilion errors. Sailors starter Adam Gerber gave up eight runs in five innings but only one was earned. "That's two straight games where our starting pitchers have given us really good outings and our defense hasn't necessarily backed them up," Gabrie said. "It's not like they're the most difficult plays. We just gotta focus on making the routine plays and getting out of innings as quick as possible. Our conference is solid and we can't give teams extra outs." Wittmer's RBI single drove in pinch-runner Elijah Ruck with Edison's first run. Cole Leimeister's single plated Wittmer with the go-ahead run. Smith followed with a run-scoring single before an error allowed two runs. Weston Hoover singled to drive in Wetherill to make it 6-1. "We got some guys on and put in some pinch-runners there," Hoover said. "It was early, third inning, but we needed that speed to score some of those runs. We were fortunate enough to get three or four hits in a row." Wittmer, who did some extra hitting work in the cage with coach Hoover on Monday night, went 3-for-4 with two runs and two RBI. The Chargers travel to Willard on Thursday before hosting Port Clinton on Monday. Vermilion hosts Port Clinton on Thursday and hosts Columbia in a non-conference game Saturday. Gabrie was an assistant under hall of fame coach Jeff Keck, who stepped down last year. "It's been an easy transition because I've been here the last couple years," Gabrie said. "I got to implement things I like to do and also carry on things Jeff would do because obviously he's a great coach. We're a young team so we gotta figure out holes in the lineup and on defense. It's still somewhat early in the season so we have time to figure it out." Edison 006 200 0 — 8 10 1 Vermilion 100 001 0 — 2 0 3 WP: Wittmer. LP: Gerber.