NORTH JACKSON, Ohio (WKBN) — “Very important, that is what we have circled from the beginning of the year, that is all we want is the conference title,” says Jackson-Milton senior pitcher Aaren Romign.
The Jackson-Milton baseball team is well on its way to achieving that goal as winners of five of its last seven, sitting with a one-game lead in the MVAC Scarlet Division.
“That is our strength is our pitching,” head coach Matt Ruby said. “We have guys that throw strikes, they compete in the zone. When I give the ball to Billy or Aaren, we plan on six innings out of those guys.”
That would be seniors Billy Sloan and Aaren Romign. Sloan is 3-1 in five starts and posts an ERA of 1.94 with 41 strikeouts. As for Romign, he is 3-0 in three starts and posts a 0.91 ERA.
The pitching staff has a whole has an ERA of just 2.48.
“It is huge, you can just go out there and say he will go out there and throw the whole game today,” said Sloan, a senior pitcher for the Blue Jays. “You don’t have to worry about getting someone else ready. Makes everything easier.”
“Makes other teams hard to plan for us because I am more of a fastball, pound you type of guy and he brings the offspeed so it is hard to plan for us both,” Romign said. “And we both have good velocity so it is hard for other teams to bat against us.”
If the Blue Jays can hold off McDonald and Springfield for a conference title, it will be their second in three years, but it is the district title that could make some history this spring for Jackson-Milton — it would be their first in program history.
“We’re going to be ready to go,” Ruby said.
“We definitely want to prove people wrong” Sloan said. “Going to be a little bit harder since we move up a division. We’re in division three. But, you know, the goal still the same. The goal still district championship.
“I mean, everything I mean, we didn’t get it done for basketball, but now I got a chance to do in baseball,” Romign said. “So I mean, the whole thing for the school, for me to leave a legacy here. By with my best friends, my team hopefully inspire our younger kids behind us.”
