By TRIS WYKES

Valley News Staff Writer

SOUTH ROYALTON — Monday’s Vermont Division III baseball quarterfinal between White River Valley and Windsor moved quickly, but memories of the clash will last a long time.

The fifth-seeded Wildcats and 13th-seeded Yellowjackets engaged in a pitcher’s duel. Host WRV won, 1-0, when it made the visitors pay for their first error of the game during the sixth inning. Windsor pitcher Johnny Clark threw a six-inning no-hitter - and lost.

“That’s one of the best high school baseball games I’ve ever seen,” said Wildcats coach Devin Cilley. “It was a different kind of awesome.”

The game began to turn when WRV’s Brayden Russ reached first on an error by Windsor shortstop Maison Fortin. The next batter, Robby McShinsky, hit a nubber up the third-base line that got him thrown out at first. However, no Yellowjackets covered third base and Russ alertly moved up two bags.

Wyatt Cadwell struck out on a beautiful curveball from Clark, but then Ty Couture chopped another ball up the third-base line, scoring Russ.

“This was our best defensive game but it’s the little things, like when I didn’t cover third,” said Clark, who struck out 11 Wildcats and walked one. “We played a solid game but we made a few mistakes.”

Windsor stranded eight runners, most of them early in the game, including a bases-loaded situation. Lee Bevis had three hits for the visitors.

The Yellowjackets managed six hits off Cadwell, who stuck out 10 batters and walked two, but coach Jamie Richardson said his troops were jittery and overeager at the plate, unwilling or unable to hold back on the sophomore’s off-speed pitches.

“We didn’t have many good, quality at-bats,” said Richardson, whose 3-14 team played numerous Division I and Division II teams and upset BFA-Fairfax in the first round. “We weren’t adjusting and we never really squared anything up.”

Cilley noted that Cadwell had a few innings in which he threw fewer than 10 pitches, the Yellowjackets often lunging at the first offering.

“Both pitchers today really attacked the hitters,” Cilley said. “Wyatt kept them off balance.”

The Wildcats (13-5), who moved up from Division IV this season, are attempting to reach a state title game for the seventh consecutive year. They won four championships during that span and have done well this spring despite graduating seven seniors a year ago.

Cilley said the current group worked hard to live up to its predecessors’ tradition, gradually understanding why it’s necessary for them to put in so much practice work.

“We had some struggles early on and it wasn’t the same feeling, because the kids hadn’t done it before,” Cilley said. “We expect to win now, but it’s taken all season to get to that point.”

Notes: The game was originally scheduled for Friday but that conflicted with Windsor’s graduation. It was pushed back a day, but rained out, although Cilley noted that as soon as the game was called, the skies dried up. There was talk of playing Sunday but some players wouldn’t be available… In attendance with his trusty camera was former Hanover High boys basketball coach and Dartmouth assistant Paul “Doc” Donahue, who now lives in Randolph… Cilley, a South Royalton High and Norwich University graduate, is a fourth-generation mortician in Chelsea, working with his father, Dennis… The WRV program includes 27 players.

Tris Wykes can be reached at twykes@vnews.com.