Staff photo / Preston Byers Springfield’s Makenna Wymer pitches during Wednesday’s win vs. Sebring in New Middletown.

NEW MIDDLETOWN — The Springfield Tigers endured an up-and-down game Wednesday before pulling away in the bottom of the sixth inning to defeat Sebring 12-8 in New Middletown.

Springfield’s Makenna Wymer broke an 8-8 tie with an RBI triple, which was quickly followed by a flurry of runs to build the lead.

“Sebring plays us tough. We played them in a 5-2 game in the ninth inning last week or two weeks ago. So just a tough game,” Springfield coach Mike Rubosky said. “They’re a good team, but it just shows our team’s resilience. We can really hit the ball. And when we put it together, we’re a pretty hard team to beat.”

Springfield jumped out ahead early with two runs in the first inning; Wymer beat out the throw at first for an RBI infield single shortly before scoring on a dropped third strike that took Sebring’s attention away from home plate.

Wymer also started the game in the circle for Springfield and powered through the first inning unscathed despite walking a pair of batters. Unfortunately for the hard-throwing freshman, she struggled to control her pitches Wednesday, which opened the door for the Trojans.

In the top of the second inning, Sebring scored three runs and momentarily took the lead as a result of a series of walks, an infield error and a wild pitch.

The Tigers bounced back in the bottom of the inning, scoring three runs of their own to reestablish an advantage, and despite the Trojans scoring one in the top of the third, Springfield added three more to take an 8-4 lead into the fourth.

Sebring’s bats, which had largely been ineffective to that point, came out hot to start the inning. Bella Threet’s leadoff single preceded a Davianna Bowyer RBI single just moments later. Bowyer later scored on a wild pitch, while two more Trojan runners would join Bowyer in crossing home plate in the half-inning despite recording no more hits.

The teams remained locked at eight runs apiece through the fifth inning, but Wymer’s triple early in the bottom of the sixth served as the much-needed spark for the Tigers. Gina Romeo immediately doubled, driving in Wymer before Romeo scored on an infield error. Payton LaCivita then scored the game’s final run on a Corissa Allen single.

Caitlin Blankenship, Springfield’s reliever who pitched the final three innings, earned the win Wednesday. She allowed two hits, four walks and no runs. Wymer struck out 10 batters and allowed two hits and 11 walks before moving to third base to make room for Blankenship.

“Makenna is a freshman, and she’s going to win a lot of games,” Rubosky said. “Coming into today, she had 86 strikeouts on the season, which is an amazing stat halfway through the year. … Sometimes kids want to be too perfect sometimes, and that’ll affect them, but she’s such an important part to our team. We put her at third base, she’s got two hits, she’s out there playing good defense. So she’s so important to us, and I want her to know how important she is.”

For Sebring, Allison Hoschar picked up the loss; she pitched all six innings, striking out three batters while surrendering 12 hits, eight earned runs and a pair of walks.

The loss is the Trojans’ 13th in a row and third consecutive close loss.

“We’re being very competitive the last three games. We’ve been right there, within one run or two runs, and it seems like it’s [always] their last at-bats,” said Sebring coach Jason Whaley, whose team lost to Chaney 4-3 and Heartland Christian 8-7 on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.

“These girls want to win, so they’re gonna fight. In last night’s game, they almost came back and won. So they’re gonna fight. They’re gonna keep battling to the final out. And that’s what I’m proud about them, is they keep on playing hard.”

The Tigers hope Wednesday’s victory will be an effective rebound. Springfield, which quadrupled its 2024 win total and had a five-game winning streak coming into the week, lost to Mineral Ridge by a combined score of 31-5 in the Monday-Tuesday league doubleheader.

“We’ve won six more games than we won last year already, and we’re halfway through the season,” Rubosky said. “We expect to compete with teams like Ridge, and we were disappointed with the scores of those games. We were up 2-1 against Ridge in the third inning, and then it falls apart. So today was one of those games that, you know, winning cures everything. We just wanted to get that win and get back to the [drawing] board and then get back out there tomorrow and try to beat another good McDonald team.”

While Springfield is at McDonald today, the Trojans host Leetonia in Sebring.