Brayden Smith did that plenty Monday.

The Gowanda center fielder reached base four times on a double and three walks, and scored three runs, as Gowanda beat Portville 9-0 in a Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 3 baseball game at Panther Park.

“What I like is that when he gets on, Blake is going to drive him in,” Gowanda head coach Tim Smith said of his leadoff batter. “We’ve tinkered with a few different things over the years, but Brayden is now a senior so he knows the role of what he’s there for.”

It didn’t really matter how many more runs Gowanda scored after its three-run first inning because Herman and Capozzi shut Portville down from the mound. The two right-handers combined on a one-hitter with 14 strikeouts and just one walk on the way to a win for Herman and an elongated save for Capozzi.

Gowanda’s Brayden Smith slides into second base for a double. OBSERVER Photo by Matt Spielman

“I feel really strong with our Nos. 1 and 2. … We go 10 deep on the mound,” Smith said. “We probably have another three guys that we are going to use as starters, not only this year, but for future years … hopefully they are seeing what we are getting out of Blake and Carter.”

Opening the league schedule in March for the first time, Gowanda jumped on top 3-0 in its half of the first inning. Smith walked on a 3-2 pitch then came around to score on Herman’s RBI triple to the right-center field gap. Herman then scored on a wild pitch and Madden Lay was hit by a pitch with one out. After a strikeout, Seth Geiger singled and Drew Kota reached on an error before Kyan Austin walked to force in the third run.

Smith walked to open the second inning and Herman was hit by a pitch before Capozzi walked to load the bases with no outs. After a popout, a walk to Logan Ruff forced in Gowanda’s fourth run and Herman later scored on Kota’s two-out RBI single to left field.

Austin singled and went to second on Carson Huch’s sacrifice bunt before scoring on Smith’s RBI double in the bottom of the third inning. A groundout by Herman moved Smith to third and Capozzi followed with an RBI single to make it 7-0.

“Some of the best teams I’ve seen, some of the teams that go to states, are the teams that do hit Nos. 1-9. One of the last really tough lineups was Fredonia in 2013, they hit 1-9 and won a state championship,” Smith said. “I’d like to think we are pretty close to that. I want to be able to trust nine guys in there and assume nine guys are going to hit for us. We have guys on the bench who can hit too.”

Gowanda’s Madden Lay attempts to pick off a Portville’s Ty Kosinski during Monday’s CCAA Division 3 baseball game. OBSERVER Photo by Matt Spielman

Ty Kosinski’s leadoff single in the second inning ended up being Portville’s lone hit of the game. Herman struck out eight of the final nine batters he faced and 10 of 13 overall.

“He knew he was going to go 50 pitches or four innings. … That was going to be the limit,” Smith said. “He did what he’s going to need to do for us … throw strikes and get ahead.”

Capozzi threw the final three innings and struck out four while walking one. He did not allow a hit and threw 23 of his 35 pitches for strikes.

“Carter came in and threw strikes,” Smith said.

Gowanda’s final two runs came with two outs in the sixth inning. Ashley walked to open the frame before a pair of outs. Huch and Smith walked with two outs before Herman was hit by a pitch for the second time to force in the eighth run. Capozzi followed with another walk to make it 9-0.

Gowanda is scheduled to return to action Thursday at home against Lancaster.

“This was actually scheduled later. We switched it to help them out. It would’ve been nice to be later,” Smith said. “We have a couple of high-end nonleague games coming up. I planned on all of that stuff being before our first league game, but that’s all right.”