Cavs beat Flyers for 16th straight victory

COLDWATER - The Coldwater Cavaliers have won 16 straight after Tuesday's 5-1 Midwest Athletic Conference victory over Marion Local.

One more win give the Cavaliers at least a share of the MAC title. Two more assures them the whole pie.

On this night, Jacob Wenning pitched a complete-game two-hitter and the Cavaliers got some timely two-out hits against Flyer ace Tim Knapschaefer, who also went the distance for his team at Veterans Field.

After starting the season with three straight defeats, Coldwater finished off a perfect 16-0 run through April, improving to 16-3 overall and 7-0 in MAC play. Marion Local fell to 8-10 overall and 3-4 in conference action.

"I said two words right before the game: aggressiveness and confidence. And we came through," said Coldwater coach Brian Harlamert, who was much more pleased with Tuesday's effort than the one on Monday against St. Marys. "We didn't play real well last night or on Saturday. So I challenged the guys today to come with more intensity."

The Cavs led 4-0 after three innings.

In the first, leadoff hitter Austin Riethman knocked a double to the left-center gap. A single by Myles Blasingame put runners on the corners for Jacob Wenning, who scored Riethman with a sacrifice fly to deep left.

The Cavs had two outs two innings later when Knapschaefer issued his first free pass of the game to Blasingame and then gave up an infield single to Wenning. Noah Miller drove in both runners with a double and Jake Hemmelgarn made it 4-0 with an RBI single.

Wenning retired Marion 1-2-3 in two of the first three innings. In the second, Marion had runners on first and second with two outs when Wenning made a quick turn and throw to the shortstop Hemmelgarn, who tagged out Knapschaefer before he got back to second base.

The Flyers had a potential big inning derailed by a double play in the fourth. Wenning walked Matt Moeller and Darrin Hays to begin the frame. Each moved one base forward on Brandon Fleck's sac bunt. An error on the throw to first allowed Moeller to score. But moments later, Coldwater second baseman Cole Frilling caught a line drive off the bat of Max Link and then doubled up Fleck at first. The next batter up, Knapschaefer, popped up to Riethman behind the plate for the inning-ending out.

"We tried to put a little pressure on there by bunting the ball a little bit," Marion Local coach Paul Utendorf said. "The double play in that one inning killed us. I think we had first and third nobody out. The line drive to the second baseman and double play kind of ran us out of the inning. … But Wenning was throwing the ball really well tonight. He had our guys constantly off balance, living on that outside corner. Our guys just weren't able to take the ball to right field tonight."

Wenning retired the side an inning later, Marion stranded two in the sixth and then the Cavalier pitcher struck out the side in the seventh.

"(Wenning) and Cole (Frilling) aren't flame throwers by any means," Harlamert said. "I think what they do almost resembles what we did in 2014 and last year. You throw strikes. You make the hitters beat you. You limit the walks. You let your defense play behind you."

The Cavs plated one run in the seventh on an RBI fielder's choice by Zack McKibben, which scored Broering, who was pinch running for Alex Wourms after a pinch-hit single.

Hemmelgarn was the only hitter with multiple hits from either side, finishing 2 for 3 with an RBI.

"That's the best catcher we've faced all year (Darrin Hays)," Harlamert said. "He can throw really well, threw us out two times. And Knap threw pretty good for them. He's a guy I don't think a lot of people realize that grew up in Coldwater. ... He moved away. He had a bad injury for them last fall. He bounced back and gave them a good effort. He threw hard. He held us to five runs. We hit the ball hard. We had some big two-out hits."

Wenning allowed just two infield singles in the game, striking out eight and walking three.

Knapschaefer allowed seven hits while striking out four and walking three.

"Knapschaefer overall threw pretty good for us," Utendorf said. "We had one error. I think it was in the third or fourth inning. And then they scored three runs after that when we should have been out of the inning. I don't feel like we were that far off. We just didn't get that clutch hit at the right time."

Both teams are back in action on Thursday. Marion Local hosts New Knoxville. Coldwater visits New Bremen looking to claim a piece of its 31st MAC crown.