He got his wish and much more as No. 3 Toronto managed to whiff just six times and took down No. 2 Wheeling Central 9-7 at Ben’s Field at the I-470 Sports Complex.

“I told them, ‘If you can cut that number in half (12 strikeouts), put the ball in play and force them to make plays we would have a chance,'” Trifonoff said. “We struck out six times and were putting the ball in play. We had two freshmen step up with big hits — Isabell Cattrell in the seventh inning with a big two-run single and Laney Danko got a couple things started in some innings where we scored runs.”

Wheeling Central also suffered from four errors on defense, which came back to haunt the Maroon Knights.

“You can’t take anything away from Toronto,” Central coach Buck Davidson said. “We made mistakes and they made us pay for them. That was the worst defensive game we’ve played all year. I think we ended up giving them four or five runs over simple mistakes but looking at the big picture, I’d rather have a breakdown now instead of in the sectional or regional playoffs.”

Toronto pitcher Andrea Reeves was strong to pocket the win with 13 strikeouts and seven walks.

“She really gutted through a tough time there,” Trifonoff said. “It didn’t look good for her there in the middle innings but she was staying in there regardless. I think she kind of figured that out and in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings, she threw some really good ball there.”

Toronto scored on an error in the first inning and plated two more in the third on another error and a RBI single off the bat of Callie Anderson to make it a 3-0 upper hand.

Central rallied in the bottom of the third when Josie Frizzell delivered a two-run knock and an error allowed the tying run to cross the plate.

A two-run single from Taylor Knollinger in the fourth gave the Maroon Knights their first lead of the game.

Then it was Toronto’s turn to rally.

The Red Knights pushed four runs across the dish in the fifth frame as Andrea Reeves provided a sac-fly, Abby Liddick garnered the game-tying RBI single and a two-out error allowed the go-ahead run and another run to race home for a 7-5 Toronto cushion.

Natalie Yates cut the deficit in half in the sixth with a RBI knock but Central left the bases loaded and Toronto made it pay.

In the top of the seventh, Cattrell delivered a two-out, two-run single to give the Red Knights some much-needed insurance and a 9-6 advantage.

Frizzell knocked in a run in the seventh but Central could not get any closer.

“It’s our goal to win the OVAC Tournament,” Trifonoff said. “Hopefully we can make it to district and hopefully win the district. We’re still working on it.”

Despite the setback, Central has a young group that can learn from this loss and use it as a growing experience.

“We started four freshmen,” Davidson said. “Even though they were making mistakes they didn’t give up. They kept battling as hard as they could until they made the final out. Their pitcher pitched really well but we weren’t picking up on her changeup like I thought we should have but you have to play seven innings and they got us by two.”