SECITION IV BASEBALL: WAVERLY BLANKS M-E, 4-0, TO TAKE 1-0 LEAD IN CLASS A CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES (24 PHOTOS) (May 26, 2026)

By TIM BIRNEY
Valley Sports Report
WAVERLY — Senior Ronin Ault was dominant on the mound, and his defense was air tight behind him in Waverly's 4-0 win over Maine-Endwell here Tuesday afternoon in Game 1 of the Section IV, Class A best-of-3 championship baseball series.

The Wolverines notched their school-record 20th win, and improved to 20-3 on the season, while the Spartans fall to 12-10.

Ault, who has been the Wolverines' ace the last two seasons, did not want this to be his final high school start.

"There was a thought coming in that this could be the last one," he said. "So I stayed up all night — running on about an hour of sleep — and watched all their film. 

"I just wanted it to be the best if it was the last," added Ault. "Hopefully, it's not. We just gotta show up and play hard on Thursday."

"Ronin pounded the strike zone, and I'm pretty proud of Ronin," said Waverly coach Kyle McDuffee. "He's done an outstanding job this year."

Ault fanned eight and walked one in a seven-inning three-hitter. He threw 97 pitches.

Ault also got plenty of help from his defense, with all three of his outfielders — senior Hogan Shaw in center, freshman Axel Murray in left, and sophomore Sam Cheresnowsky in right — making at least one nice running catch, and the infield turning a pair of double plays.

"Sammy (Chersnowsky) had some great catches," said Ault. "He scared me a little bit on the one, I thought for sure it was dropping in there. 

"Hogan (Shaw) went back on a ball in 2-0 count that I thought might be a double or triple, but he made a good play," noted Ault.

"We were making good plays all around. Obviously, we had the double plays up the middle.

"I trust those guys whole-heartedly," he added.

McDuffee was impressed with his defense.

"Our outfield makes hard plays look really easy," he said. "They get to a ball, they're squaring it up. Most years, we wouldn't have gotten to those balls. They're making hard plays look easy. 

"Sammy caught that line drive, it would have been a one-hopper a couple years ago," noted McDuffee.

"Our center fielder, Hogan (Shaw), just takes the right angles and he gets to the ball," said McDuffee. "They hit the one to the fence, and he got to it.

"Our defense played well, just awesome," added McDuffee.

While the Wolverines played errorless ball, the Spartans committed four errors, leading to three unearned runs.

"We took advantage of some uncharacteristic mistakes by M-E," said McDuffee. "Especially in these big games, you have to take advantage of them, because I know if we made the mistakes, they'd be taking advantage, and they'd be doing the same darn thing to us."

Ault needed just seven pitches to get through the top of the first inning, and the Wolverines took advantage of two M-E errors to take a 1-0 lead.

Hogan Shaw worked a walk to lead off the game, and Ault drew a one-out walk to put runners on first and second.

M-E ace Grady Wilson nearly escaped the predicament by picking off Ault at first base, and inducing a ground ball, but it was misplayed to put runners on first and third.

After another ground ball was misplayed allowing Hogan Shaw to score, the Spartans handled the next grounder to end the inning.

In the second inning, Murray hit a lead-off single to right field and Cheresnowsky lined a one-out single into left field.

After a fielder's choice grounder off the bat of Hogan Shaw left him at first and Murray at third base with two outs, sophomore Jack Pipher lined an RBI single into center field to make it 2-0.

The Spartans chose to intentionally walk Ault to load the bases, and it nearly worked, but a throwing error on a ground ball off the bat of junior Matthias Welles plated a pair of runs to push the Wolverines' lead to 4-0.

Ault said the early lead was big for him.

"Yeah, that early lead changes my approach a bit," he said.  "I know I can just pound the zone.

"I know coming into games, if we score three, we have a good shot at winning when I'm on the mound or any of our guys. 

"So that's my mindset," added Ault. "We put up three, and I can just go."

M-E got its first base-runner in the top of the third on a one-out walk to Wilson, but three pitches later, Ault started a 1-6-3 double play that also included Pipher at short, and Welles at first base to end the inning.

Neither offense mounted a threat in the fourth of fifth innings.

Ault, who faced the minimum 15 batters through the first five innings, was touched up for M-E's first hits — singles by Jackson Buckley and Matty Fuller — to lead off the top of the sixth inning.

Ault settled down and recorded a pair of strikeouts, sandwiched around a nice running catch by Hogan Shaw in center field, to escape the jam unscathed.

Even with the first two batters reaching to start the sixth, Ault said he wasn't trying to do too much.

"My goal was get a ground ball; that was my main priority," he said. "I kind of lost the command a little bit, but I just wanted to make them put the bat on the ball. 

"I didn't want to be too fine with it and just make them hit the ball off me, see what our defense could do," added Ault.

M-E stalwart Max Policare led off the top of the seventh inning with a single. After a strikeout, Waverly turned a 6-4-3 (Pipher tp senior Daltton Davis to Welles) twin-killing to end the game.

"We turned a couple big double plays today," said McDuffee.

"That last double play, I didn't really see it coming," he noted. "I thought, 'OK, we'll get the lead out,' and then I'm watching and thinking 'I think Dalton's going to turn that,' and he did.

"Dalton has a pretty strong arm, and that kid always steps up to the moment," said McDuffee. "He has the 'it.' He knows exactly what it takes to get the play done.

"I'm really happy Daltton came out this year, and I'm really proud of him," he added.

Pipher singled, scored one run, and drove in one run, while Murray singled and scored one run, and Cheresnowsky added a single to account for Waverly's three hits, while Hogan Shaw scored two runs.

McDuffee believes there's a lot of series remaining to be played.

"We have to go and just get it," he said. "We have to play as if the series is still zero-zero; that's why we like 3 game series."

Game Two is set for Thursday at 5 p.m. at Maine-Endwell.

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IN PHOTO 1: Waverly's Ronin Ault. IN TOP PHOTO: Waverly's Matthias Welles. ... PHOTOS BY TIM BIRNEY.

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