Hiland holds third in Wayne, Holmes County baseball rankings after rebound wins

Hiland stayed in the Holmes County title conversation at No. 3 in the April 22 Wayne and Holmes County baseball rankings, and the Hawks did it by bouncing back fast. After falling 5-3 at Waynedale in a non-conference game between two defending OHSAA state champions, Hiland responded with two emphatic wins, 14-8 and 14-2, to steady a season that already has the county paying attention.

The top of the rankings reflected how sharply one weekend shifted the local picture. Waynedale held No. 1, Wooster sat at No. 2, and Hiland followed at 9-3. For Holmes County programs, that matters because the rankings have become a weekly measure of who is peaking, who is wobbling and which matchup could reshape the road ahead. When the area’s best teams meet in late April, the result does more than add a line to the schedule. It changes the conversation around tournament form.

Hiland’s position carried extra weight because the Hawks entered the spring as the OHSAA three-time defending state champions. In the April 14 rankings, when Hiland was 5-2, the Hawks had already shown the kind of tight-game resilience that can carry a team through the postseason. Three of those wins came by 1-0 scores, with strong performances from Mike Miller and Logan Yoder helping set the tone. The latest rankings suggest Hiland has added a different kind of proof, answering a setback with two games in which the offense broke loose.

That combination of pedigree and recovery is why Hiland still looks like the Holmes County team with the clearest path to turning early-season form into a tournament run. The matchup with Waynedale also carried the kind of built-in relevance that only a few programs in this area can claim. Hiland beat Waynedale 7-1 in the 2016 state championship game in Columbus, Waynedale won the Division III state title in 2023, and Hiland captured its third straight state title in June 2025. Those are not just résumé points. They are the backdrop every time the two programs meet, whether it is in Apple Creek, Berlin, Wooster or a later-round playoff game with bigger stakes still to come.