North Canton, OH- On June 2, the 2025 Western Reserve Collegiate League began with a battle between the regular season champion Stark County Terriers hosting the regular season and playoff runner-ups, Premier Ohio.
Outside of two broadcasts last year, this marks the beginning of the league having games broadcast on SmeeSports. The fans did not disappoint as 304 views were recorded live. At the time of writing, there are 444 views of the broadcast. While that number seems small, perspective shows the full story. Last season, the most viewed WRCL broadcast tallied 317 views, including playback. Expanding the stats to Summer baseball across all leagues, our record is 348 for the OPL Championship between North Coast and BHM Buckeyes.
Expanding to high school sports, which tend to get more views than travel leagues, Monday’s broadcast competed with plenty of our OHSAA broadcasts. Including a district semifinals game, all six softball games streamed on SmeeSports were outperformed by Monday’s game. Additionally, 12 high school baseball games recorded fewer views, with one (Alliance Vs Warren JFK) matching the 444 views exactly at the time of writing. Finally, five Tri-C games recorded fewer views. Adding that context, the viewership is really impressive.
Looking at the game, Premier got the opening day win 9-4 behind an impressive 16 hits. Ed Ramos put Premier on the board with an RBI double in the second. He would proceed to score from third later in the inning. RBIs from Michael Steingass, Jack Amis, Bryce Bogan, and Teagan O’Guinn added four more runs to Premier’s lead. In the bottom of the third, William Feser hit an RBI single for Stark County to put them on the board. However, the game script shows five Terriers stranded on the basepath between the second and third innings. From there, Premier held a steady lead with 9-1 being the largest it ever got.
On the mound, it was Henry Mates, Matthew Botger, Zach Barber, and Ryan Gordon holding things down. Mates got the start, throwing two innings while recording two strikeouts and earning the win. Botger followed up with two strikeouts of his own. Barber and Gordon closed the game out with one strikeout each.
As for Stark County, Mount Union sophomore (rising junior) Ty Dennison started the ballgame. This was his first start since his impressive six-inning relief outing against Catholic in the NCAA baseball tournament. Dennison earned three strikeouts but allowed six runs in a losing effort. Garret Odey and Luke Jansen finished the game off for the Terriers. Odey struck out two batters while Jansen punched out one. The big play on the mound came from Jansen as he threw out a runner at first, getting a lead.
With collegiate Summer leagues folding across Northeast Ohio, the Western Reserve Collegiate League has remained a mainstay and staple in the area. With seven top-tier teams this year, the competition will be fierce. The best way to stay connected to the league is to follow the WRCL on X at @wrclbb. The league website is also updated daily. To watch our broadcast of the game on Monday, click the link below.
Link to Stark County Terriers Vs Premier Ohio Baseball: https://www.youtube.com/live/uSvg6JRCegk?si=x4fJqU4VLnbo4nyZ
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