Minster and Wapak earn easy wins

MINSTER - After some rough sailing in the early going, the Minster ACME baseball team righted the ship both defensively and offensively to rally and defeat the Anna Rockets 14-4 in a five-inning contest during the opening round of the ACME District 4 tournament at Hanover Street Park.

The win propels Minster to the winner's bracket finals tonight at 6:30 p.m. against Wapakoneta, a 9-2 winner over Fort Loramie in Monday's nightcap.

Trailing 4-0, the Wildcats got going offensively by scoring three runs in the bottom of the second inning. Brad Walterbusch and Clay Brown led off with singles before Anna's pitcher Josh Robinson retired the next two batters. Both runners moved up a base after a wild pitch before Jay Eilerman plated two runs with a single. After Eilerman stole second, he raced home on Andrew Knapke's RBI single to center.

Minster took the lead for good, scoring four times with two outs in the fourth. The Wildcats' nine-hole hitter Max Huber got things going for Minster after reached base on a bunt single up the first-base line. After a walk to Eilerman, Knapke gave his team the lead with a two-run double to leftfield. Knapke scored the third run of the inning when Devon Poeppelman's ground ball was thrown away at first base for a two-base error.

The Wildcats put a premature end to the game by scoring eight runs on just four hits in the bottom of the fifth. Minster took advantage of five walks, two errors, a wild pitch and a passed ball. John Baumer had the big hit of the inning, a two-run single that plated the final two runs.

'Tonight we played much better than we did last Friday," said Minster's coach Scott Sherman. "The bottom of the batting order did a great job in the two scoring innings of getting on and setting the table for the top of the order and they did a great job of driving in the runs.

"Andrew Knapke had a huge game tonight," continued Sherman. "That double that he had in the fourth was huge. It gave us the lead and got us going."

After giving up four runs and six hits in the first two innings, Minster's starting pitcher Brandon Hoying settled down and shut out the Rockets over the final 3 1/3 innings.

"The first couple of innings they hit the ball hard and they hit it where (we) weren't," said Sherman. "Brandon settled down and battled, threw strikes and began to pitch to contact. The defense came up huge as they turned a double play in the top of the fifth when the game was still close.


Wapakoneta 9, Fort Loramie 2

Wapak scored a pair of runs in the second inning and two more in the third as it pulled away for the win over Fort Loramie in a battle of Redskins.

Five Fort Loramie errors resulted in Seth Guillozet giving up six unearned runs in his 5 2/3 innings on the mound for the Shelby County squad.

Wapak's Chandler Kaeck picked up the win with 3 1/3 innings in relief of starter Brandon Miller, who allowed two runs - both unearned - and five hits. Kaeck scattered two walks and struck out six while not allowing a hit the rest of the way.

Kaeck also aided Wapak at the plate by going 2-for-4 with a double and three RBI. Miller scored three runs and hit a triple for Wapak.