Indians rally their way to Columbus

SPRINGFIELD - After his team gave up two runs in the top of the sixth to trail 9-7, Fort Recovery baseball coach Jerry Kaup gathered the troops to tell them to press on.

The Indians pressed, pushed and bull-rushed their way back, scoring four runs in the bottom of the sixth to win the Division IV Springfield regional title 11-9 over Cincinnati Country Day at Davidson Stadium in Springfield.

Fort Recovery (25-5) will play in the state semifinals for the first time since 1953 on Thursday at 4 p.m. at Huntington Park in Columbus. Awaiting them is last year's state runner-up and seven-time state champion Newark Catholic. The Green Wave needed 12 innings before beating Berlin Hiland 5-4 in the Lancaster regional. The other side of the bracket has Hicksville taking on Berlin Center Western Reserve at 7 p.m.

The two Indians' squads battled back and forth throughout the game, with Fort Recovery answering every measure of Country Day.

"I'm really proud how the boys were able to come back," Kaup said. "You get an early lead and lose it as rapidly as we lost it, with things going bad and mistakes that were uncharacteristic. I could tell we were nervous."

Unlike the past two games when the opponent scored first, Fort Recovery plated three in the bottom of the first thanks a sacrifice fly by Derek Backs and an RBI double from Jacob Homan.

Cole Wendel, who had a 1-2-3 first inning, struggled in the second as Country Day tied the game. Domenick Doane had an RBI triple and later scored on a fielder's choice.

Fort Recovery answered with three runs in the bottom of the second, two coming on a Homan single with Cole Wendel adding another.

Just as quickly, Country Day took a 7-6 lead with four runs in the third off Chase Bruns, who relieved Wendel in the second. Bruns was only able to get one out, a sacrifice fly by Austin Richey, and allowed four hits to load the bases for Doane. Cade Wendel came on and gave up a triple to Doane, who was thrown out at the plate trying for an inside the park home run.

Doane, who came on in relief of Richey in the second, got through the third before Fort Recovery tied the game in the fourth when Nate Lochtefeld grounded into a fielder's choice to score Jackson Hobbs.

Cade Wendel shut down Country Day in the fourth and fifth innings, but in the sixth he allowed Cam Davis to walk and move up to second on a Charlie Sachs bunt. Kaup wasted no time in calling on Hobbs, who pitched a complete game in Thursday's win over Lehman. After intentionally walking Cameron Alldred, Richey grounded to short to force out Alldred for the second out. Ronnie Allen followed with a single between second and first to score David and Richey to make it 9-7 before Hobbs got the final out.

If there was any frustration, the Fort wasn't showing much.

"We had no doubt in our mind," Stammen said. "We already answered twice before. We knew it we had to take it one (at-bat) at a time."

Fort Recovery wasted no time in staging the comeback. Homan reached on a two-base error. Kyle Schroer and Lochtefeld followed with consecutive singles, with Homan scoring on Lochtefeld's hit to make it 9-8. Country Day called Thursday's pitcher Alldred to try and end the threat. Ben Will greeted the University-of-Cincinnati-bound southpaw with a squeeze bunt to score Schroer to tie the game. Bruns popped up for the first out of the inning to bring up Stammen, who tried another squeeze bunt. This time, though, Alldred got to the ball and threw home for the tag on Lochtefeld for the second out.

With Cole Wendel up, Stammen started towards second base and was caught in a rundown. Stammen did just enough to keep Country Day's attention to allow Will to slide home, and Stammen advanced to second safely continue the inning. After Wendel was hit by a pitch, Hobbs helped his cause with a single to score Stammen to make it a two-run game.

"It's tough to come back, but that's what good teams do," Backs said. "Coach did a good job of getting us to regroup and we knew we could do it. I felt like I had a part in the downfall (Backs was breaking for second on a possible pickoff on Allen's base hit). They picked me up. That's what good teammates do."

"We've been doing this the whole trail," Cole Wendel said. "We know once we get down, we're always going to come back."

All the Indians needed were three outs. Hobbs struck out Doane, who was 3-for-3 with four RBIs coming to the plate, for the first out. Greg Foster followed by reaching on an error. A.J. Rowe grounded to Lochtefeld at third for the second out to bring up Davis. Davis grounded to Backs at second, who threw to Cole Wendel at first to end the game.

When asked what he was thinking when the ball came to him, Backs was to the point.

" 'Let's go to Columbus. Automatic,' " he said.

Fort Recovery, with just two wins five years ago, is now heading to Columbus.

"No time off," Stammen said. "We're going to keep playing as hard as we can and see what happens, to see if we can get it done."