Tuesday, May 26th, 2015
Indians rally to punch ticket to regionals
Division IV District Baseball Championship
By Gary R. Rasberry
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Fort Recovery's Mitch Stammen slides into home asMinster catcher Ben Stubbs waits on the ball. Stammen scored two runs to help the Indians beat the Wildcats 7-2 to earn the program its first trip to regionals in over 60 years.
COLDWATER - After giving up two runs in the bottom of the first inning, things were a little heavy on the Fort Recovery side.
By the final out, though, the Indians were floating on air and punching their ticket to territory not ventured in more than 60 years.
Three runs each in the third and fifth inning propelled Fort Recovery past Minster 7-2 in the Division III district baseball championship game Saturday night at Veterans Field in Coldwater.
The Indians (23-5) advance to the regional tournament for the first time since 1953 - when that team finished as state runner-up - against Lehman at Davidson Stadium in Springfield Thursday at 2 p.m. The Cavaliers defeated Fayetteville Perry 8-0 in Miamisburg on Saturday afternoon.
"It's great for the community," Fort Recovery coach Jerry Kaup said. "It's great for this team to be a leader. Hopefully, the program continues that tradition. Someone has to break (into) that territory. This team has been doing that."
The Wildcats, looking to get back to the regionals for the first time since 2012 when they won their second straight state title, ends the season at 18-9.
"First and foremost, I want to congratulate Fort Recovery," Minster coach Mike Wiss said. "Jerry has done a tremendous job the last bunch of years. Those guys play hard for him."
"Coldwater hosts a nice district tournament. What a nice facility. Anyone wants to find out how to host a tournament. Call (athletic director) Eric Goodwin."
Both teams went with the starting pitchers from Wednesday's semifinals. Josh Nixon entered having thrown no-hitters in his first two tournament games while Jackson Hobbs needed just 45 pitches over four innings to get the win and rest up for Saturday's game.
Just like the first meeting on May 1, Minster struck first. Jon Niemeyer singled and made it to second on a bad throw on an attempt for a force out. After J.R. Nixon was hit by a pitch, Matthew Trushaw singled in Niemeyer, Josh Nixon followed when a throw home for the force out was wild.
"We've not been to this game in a while," Kaup said, referring to the Indians' last district final appearance in 2007. "The jitters and nerves showed early."
"Getting two runs early was important to us," Wiss said. "We beat them in the district semi last year in 10 innings. We got them early this year in the MAC. We had to match their energy. We have to come with a great motivation in this game. I thought we did."
After that, Hobbs was in control. The junior allowed just two more hits and a hit batsmen the rest of the way. Hobbs did not walk a batter and struck out two.
Josh Nixon went through the first two innings with little issue. In the third, the Indians came back. After getting the first two outs, Nixon hit Mitch Stammen, who promptly stole second. Cole Wendel ended the Minster pitcher's hitless streak at 16 2/3 innings with an RBI double. Hobbs helped his own cause with an RBI single. Will Homan, brought on to run for the pitcher, circled the bases thanks to three Nixon wild pitches to put the Indians in front.
"We settled down," Hobbs said. "We got three in the third to take the lead. The feeling was so much better scoring the runs rather than giving them up."
After a 1-2-3 fourth, Nixon was pulled for Trushaw, who picked up the win in the May 1 meeting. After getting the first out, Stammen beat out an infield single and went to second on the wild throw by a falling Trushaw. Wendel picked up his second RBI of the night with a single and later scored on Derek Backs' RBI single. After Trushaw was pulled for Peter Falk, Hobbs scored on a wild pitch.
"We decided to get (runs) one at a time. We were fortunate to have that big inning. Then we felt a little more confident in ourselves," Kaup said.
The coup de grâce for Fort Recovery came in the top of the seventh when Jacob Homan hit his second home run of the season, hitting the bottom part of the scoreboard in left field.
All that remained for Hobbs was to close things out, which he did with ease, getting Ben Stubbs to ground to second, Falk to pop out to the mound and then with his 80th pitch of the game, enticed Niemeyer to ground the ball back to Hobbs, who threw to first to end things.
"Minster started this year 2-5 and finished 18-9," Wiss said. "I'm proud where we got to. We got right back to where we were last year. That was what our goal was. I just wanted a different outcome."
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Cole Wendel had two RBIs to help Fort Recovery to a victory over Minster.
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Fort Recovery catcher Chase Bruns tries to throw to first after forcing out Minster's J.R. Nixon during Saturday's Division IV district baseball championship game at Coldwater's Veterans Field.
Photo by Nick Wenning/The Daily Standard
Jackson Hobbs allowed two runs in the first inning, but then shut down Minster over the final six innings to help Fort Recovery to a 7-2 win.
