Pitchers' duel

CELINA - Monday's St. Henry-Celina baseball game was one where a good pitcher was going to take a hard-luck loss.   

St. Henry's Nolan Schmitz and Tyler Dehan combined to hold Celina to four hits, but the Bulldogs managed to push a run across in the bottom of the fifth and Dylan Feister came through with a three-hitter to get the 1-0 win at Montgomery Field.

Feister scattered three hits, two coming in the Redskins' attempt to rally in the top of the seventh, and three walks, all in the third inning, to get the victory.

"I told Dylan after the game 'I'm proud of you,' " said Celina coach Andy Waesch. "He threw against Fort Recovery last week and struggled. He came out tonight and worked. It was nice."

Schmitz started the game for the Redskins and went four innings with just two hits and two walks given up while striking out four.

"Both those guys have been great all year," said St. Henry coach Mike Gast. "They've been effective throwing off-speed for strikes. Proud of those guys."

Dehan came on to pitch the fifth and allowed a walk to Brecken Adams to start the inning. After a groundout, Quinn Andrew doubled to right, allowing Adams to come around and score. Blayn Aller followed with a single to put runners on the corners, but Dehan got a strikeout and groundout back to the mound to end the threat and then retired the side in order in the sixth.

Feister struck out three, but had great defense on the day. Right fielder Lane Nuding had four putouts as the Redskins had eight flyball outs.

The biggest Redskin scoring threat came in the third. After getting Clayton Everman to fly to right, Feister walked Derek Broering, Seth Heitkamp and Dehan to load the bases for Shane Franck. Franck grounded to second baseman David Kramer, who threw home for the force on Broering for the second out. Ryan Uhlenhake followed with another grounder to Kramer, who threw to first to end the threat.

In the seventh, Feister got the first out before Evan Buschur singled. Everman lofted a deep fly to center, but Zach Stein pulled it in near the warning track for the second out. Broering singled to put runners at first and second, but Feister got Heitkamp to pop to Zach Hirch in foul territory near first base to end the threat.

"When you see a goose egg (zero) on the E (the error section of the scoreboard, you have a good chance of winning every ballgame," said Waesch.

"We played about as well of a game as we could," said Gast. "We struck out three times, but (Feister) did a good job mixing off-speed around the zone. We had some hard outs, but couldn't find the grass."

Buschur had two of the three Redskin hits. Andrew had two hits for Celina.

Celina is back in action today as the Bulldogs travel to St. Marys to open up Western Buckeye League play. St. Henry begins Midwest Athletic Conference on Thursday when Marion Local comes to the Wally Post Athletic Complex.