Redskins win MAC outright

FORT RECOVERY - With two of the best baseball pitchers in the area squaring off, whichever team could get an advantage early was going to come away with the win.

St. Henry did just that, scoring two unearned runs in the third inning, which was enough for Redskin ace Ryan Mikesell, who outdueled Fort Recovery's Jackson Hobbs to claim a 2-0 win in Friday night Midwest Athletic Conference play.

The win gives St. Henry (16-7, 8-0 MAC) the outright conference title since Fort Recovery (19-3, 6-2), Coldwater and Minster each have two league losses. The Redskins can run the table in MAC play Tuesday night at home against backyard rival Coldwater.

"We knew it was going to be a close game," St. Henry coach John Dorner said. "We were fortunate to take advantage of their mistakes."

"Two good pitchers. Both pitched well," Fort Recovery coach Jerry Kaup said. "Jackson was Jackson. Excellent performance. Ryan throws well."

Hobbs allowed just seven hits and three walks - two of them intentional passes to Andrew Lundvall - over seven innings. The Indians defense played well early, getting double plays in each of the first two innings to take the Redskins out of innings.

In the third, though, the Redskins took advantage of the only sloppy inning for the Fort. Evan Lefeld led off with a single and went to second on Blake Hoyng's sacrifice bunt. Mitch A. Stammen lofted a deep fly to right to advance Lefeld to third. Josh Osterholt followed with a grounder to shortstop Jacob Homan, who could not handle the ball, allowing Lefeld to score. Lundvall followed with a single to bring up Derek Lange, who belted a shot to center to score Osterholt to make it 2-0.

After that, Hobbs settled down, allowing just two more singles.

"We knew he was good enough to get ahead in the count and challenge batters," Dorner said of Hobbs. "He didn't always challenge with fastball, he could do it with a curveball, too. We talked about keeping the hands back and being aggressive with strikes in the zone."

Mikesell was on his game. The only inning the Indians threatened to score came in the bottom of the third when Cole Wendel and Hobbs had back-to-back one-out singles. Mikesell bowed his back and struck out Homan and Derek Backs to end the threat.

From that point on, Mikesell put it into cruise control, retiring all 12 batters he faced in the final four innings, finishing with seven strikeouts, one walk, one hit batsmen and two hits allowed.

"Ryan struggled a little bit early trying to get ahead in the count, but being a veteran pitcher, he got ahead as the game progressed," Dorner said. "His curveball from the second inning on, he was able to throw for strikes."

"We had to see it come down to where it came down to," Kaup said. "We both had a chance to get the ball into play. Unfortunately, we didn't get it done."

Dorner had high praise for the Indians, whose only league losses came to Minster and now St. Henry.

"I can't say enough about Jerry Kaup. For what he has done with this program, to be No. 1 in the state (in Division IV) and be in the position the last week of the season for a title run. As far as I'm concerned, he's the MAC coach of the year," Dorner said. "I think that team can go a long way in tournament."

St. Henry's D.J. Kunkler was the only player on either team with a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4.

St. Henry hosts Anna on Monday in a battle of state-ranked Division III teams. Fort Recovery wraps up the MAC season on Tuesday at Marion Local.