Wildcats keep rolling onto regional

COLDWATER - Minster baseball coach Mike Wiss had one item circled on his pitching sheet at the end of Friday's Division IV district final.

It was a double play, one of two turned by the Wildcats that helped sway the momentum and bring them a third straight district title with an 11-2 win over backyard rival New Bremen at Veterans Field in Coldwater.

Minster (20-7) travels to Carleton Davidson Stadium in Springfield next Thursday at 5 p.m. to face the Mechanicsburg Indians, who defeated Seven Hills to win the Kings Mills Kings District title. The 2 p.m. semifinal pits Russia against Cincinnati Christian. The Cardinals end a fine season at 21-6.

The beginning of the game had the makings of a back-and-forth slugfest. New Bremen scored one in the top of the first when Ryan Bertke singled home Grant Selby. Minster countered in the bottom of the first with an August Boehnlein RBI single that scored Jack Olberding.

The Cardinals used a delayed double steal to go up 2-1 in the second as Bryce Blickle tried to get into a rundown between first and second and Tyler Overman slid under the tag at home. Minster, though, came back with a vengeance in the bottom of the second. Jacob Niemeyer had an RBI double and Olberding tripled home two runs as part of a four-run inning to go up 5-2.

In the third, New Bremen had runners at first and second with one out when Minster pitcher Jack Heitbrink enticed Patrick Wells to hit into a 4-6-3 double play.

"That's the only thing I have circled," Wiss said. "I think early, (Heitbrink) struggled with walks. I thought we played decent defense behind him."

The big defensive play began a big offensive inning in the bottom of the third as Minster plated three more runs to go up 8-2. Adam Ketner had an RBI double, Olberding singled home a run and Noah Enneking laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to score Niemeyer.

"Scoring early and playing with the lead in tournament games is such a big deal," said Wiss. "I thought we swung the bats again. … A couple two-out hits, some timely hits. … I'm pleased with the kids."

New Bremen tried to get another rally going in the fourth with Zach Bertke at third and Aaron Vonderhaar at first with nobody out. Overman lined a hard shot to third that Mike Ketner snagged and then beat Bertke back to the bag for the unassisted double play. Blickle then grounded to Ketner to end the last big Cardinal scoring chance.

"We hit one of the harder-hit balls of the night and it was right at (Ketner)," said New Bremen coach Chad Wells. "That's baseball."

Minster wrapped up the scoring with three runs off reliever Ben Kuck in the sixth. Austin Brown doubled home one run, Trent Roetgerman flew out to score another run and Brown scored on a wild pitch.

"They hit some balls to the gap we were close to getting to," said Wells. "We just came up a little short."

That was more than enough for Heitbrink, who did not allow a hit after the fourth inning and retired the last eight batters he faced to get the win.

"That's 11 straight (wins)," said Wiss. "We're a different team than we were four weeks ago. Just really proud how far we've come."

"Proud of the kids and the effort they gave tonight. They didn't quit," said Wells. "Hats' off to Minster. They came out and swung the bats well.

"This group of kids. 21-6 and a sectional championship. Nothing to hang their heads about."

Olberding went 3 for 4 with three RBIs. He was a home run short of the cycle. Niemeyer, Brown and Roetgerman each had two hits.

Vonderhaar had two of the five Cardinal hits.