ROSSFORD — Rossford’s Jerry Baumgartner Diamond at Myron “Brick” Long Field was redressed with brand new artificial field turf during the offseason.

The turf covers the infield on Brick Long Field along with the infields of one other baseball field and two softball fields at Rossford School’s Glenwood Athletic Complex.

For the baseball team, it is paying dividends.

“The playing surface is phenomenal. We haven’t had a bad hop yet,” joked Rossford baseball coach Phil O’Shea.

“But in reality, it’s been awesome,” O’Shea continued. “It has allowed us to get more practice time, especially during the colder times.

“A lot of rain has fallen this spring and we’ve been out here a lot. We are already 10 games in, and a lot of teams are nowhere near that. It’s a blessing.”

Rossford got to show off its new turf to teams that traveled from across Ohio for an eight-team weekend invitational tournament, which was won by Cuyahoga Falls Walsh Jesuit.

O’Shea liked the way his team performed against some of the best competition the state has to offer.

“We started out really well, especially the first week,” O’Shea said. “We had our high school invitational where we played some really good ball against some really good teams.”

That included Rossford’s 4-3 win over defending Division II state champion Akron Archbishop Hoban.

“It was a great win. We were riding high. We probably got almost too high off that win,” O’Shea said. “After we got that win, we continued to play well, we pitched well, we played defense well, but the bats have gotten kind of cold.

“For some reason our sticks have gotten a little colder than we’d like them to be. The pitching and defense have been great, but the offense has been a little bit of our bug-a-boo so far,” O’Shea continued.

“We’ve got to figure out a way to get that going and then we’re going to be a pretty good team.”

That was on display Saturday as Rossford defeated Swanton, 2-1, to improve to 5-5. The Bulldogs had runners in scoring position every inning but left 10 runners stranded on the basepaths.

“That has been the story the last few games. We’ve gotten guys on, we’ve hit the ball, but we haven’t strung anything together,” O’Shea said.

“We are starting to get aggressive on the bases, which is good, but we’ve got to get that key hit at the key time. We’re struggling on that right now, but it is going to come.”

Against Swanton, Rossford’s Kaidyn Herrick was 2-for-3 with a double and had both RBIs, plus he was the winning pitcher.

On the mound, Herrick struck out three, walked none, allowed one hit and no runs through 3.1 innings pitching in relief.

Herrick was one of three Rossford pitchers who were kept to a pitch count because it was a non-league game, so he had to make the most of his time.

“I’m just trying to strike them out, honestly, that was it. I just wanted to keep my pitch count down and stay alive,” Herrick said.

Herrick followed starter Brandon Swope, a lefty who struck out the side in the first inning and finished with five strikeouts and one walk, allowing two hits and one run. It was Swope who also got the win over Hoban.

Landon Reiter closed in the seventh, striking out one and only allowing one hitter reach base on a walk.

The three Rossford pitchers combined to allow just three hits, none for extra bases.

“I know it was a 2-1 game, but we’re in the middle of league play right now,” O’Shea said.

“Next week we have three league games so today was about just keeping guys under 45 pitches, letting them get on the mound a little bit and get after them.

“It was almost live bullpens, which was the way we looked at it, but they got after it and they pitched well,” O’Shea continued.

Plus, there were no errors by the Rossford defense, despite the game starting in temperatures under 50 degrees and a steady wind.

However, even Herrick believes his team should have a better than .500 record.

“For the most part, we are doing well, but I feel like we could play better,” Herrick said.

“We’ve got more potential in us, and I don’t think we are at our full capacity yet. I think one day we’ll get there and when we get there, we are going to be a dangerous team.”

Also getting base hits for Rossford Saturday was Jacob Tuczynski and Kaden Kirkman. Three Rossford batters were hit by a pitch and five reached on walks.

For Swanton (4-3), Kaden Curtis, Garrett Swank and Trent Eitniear had base hits, with Eitniear’s base hit to left in the second inning driving in Curtis for their only run.

Adam Lemon started on the mound, striking out one, walking two, and allowing two hits and one run through two innings.

Losing pitcher Caleb Ostrander struck out one, walked two, and allowed two hits and one run through three innings, and Eitniear closed in the sixth, only allowing one batter to reach on a walk.