Wednesday, April 24th, 2019

Homan, Indians roll past Flyers

By Gary R. Rasberry

FORT RECOVERY - Marion Local softball players had to feel like Fort Recovery pitcher Jackie Homan was a one-woman army on Tuesday.

The freshman struck out 10 and forced the Flyers into grounding back to the pitching circle six times as the Indians won their second MAC game in a row with a 10-1 victory at Fort Recovery Middle School.

The win moves the Indians to 10-9 and 2-2 in the MAC, the first time since 2011 that the Indians have won two league games in a season.

Homan scattered five hits and did not issue a walk in her victory. Twenty of the 27 batters she faced saw a strike on the first pitch and her groundout-to-flyout ratio was 8-2.

"Jackie was on tonight and the defense had her back," said Fort Recovery coach EJ Stephen. "Everybody was doing their part tonight.

"She has to pitch pretty much every inning of every game and is really handling it well as a freshman. Give her major props for that."

All Marion Local coach Jerry Moeller could do was shake his head and tip his cap.

"Six put-outs and 10 strikeouts. We just couldn't get on the ball," said Moeller. "We're in a funk right now."

The Indians plated three runs in each of the first two innings. Hannah Knapke singled home Brenna Homan and Jackie Homan in the first inning and later scored on a fielder's choice where she beat the tag at the plate. Wenning drove in two more in the second inning with a double.

The Indians added single runs in the third and fourth innings before Flyer pitcher Emily Nietfeld pitched a scoreless fifth. Fort Recovery finished its offensive performance with two runs in the sixth after Jackie Homan and Knapke led off with back-to-back doubles, followed by a Wenning RBI single and then an attempted double steal to allow Knapke to take home.

"Our bats were definitely on tonight," said Stephen. "They kept hitting."

The Flyers' lone run came in the second inning. Brooke Hartings doubled with one out and scored one out later on a throwing error.

Knapke went 3 for 4 for Fort Recovery with Wenning collecting two hits and four RBIs. Brenna Homan, Jackie Homan and Rachel Thien each had two hits.

Hartings doubled twice to lead Marion (5-11, 1-4 MAC).

Both teams are in MAC play on Thursday as Fort Recovery travels to St. Henry and Marion Local makes the trek to New Bremen.

Archive of April 24th, 2019

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Compiled by Colin Foster and Gary R. Rasberry

Tim Knapschaefer struck out 12, walked two and allowed just three hits in a complete-game effort as Marion Local handed Fort Recovery its second consecutive MAC loss by a score of 8-1 on Tuesday at the Airport in Maria Stein.

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