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Fort Recovery first baseman Gavin Faller applies the tag as St. Marys' Carter Steinberg is picked off first in the second inning at the Stockade on Monday.
FORT RECOVERY - After relying on pitching and defense in the spring, Fort Recovery brought out the bats Monday night to extend its undefeated start to the ACME baseball season.
The Indians took advantage of three St. Marys errors in the second before hitting four doubles in the third to break the game open on the way to a 9-1 win at the Stockade.
"First inning, we hit the ball hard a couple times and they made some plays," Fort Recovery coach Craig Evers said. "After that, we kept telling the kids to be aggressive hitting, and that's what they did."
St. Marys (0-1) starter Colton Mabry gave up a leadoff double to Reece Wendel in the second inning, and the Roughriders' defense did Mabry no favors, with Reece Evers' grounder going through the legs of Carson Sturwold at third base before Rex Leverette hit an RBI grounder to short and reached when the throw bounced past first.
Mabry got a pop-up, a sacrifice fly and a grounder to short, but on the third, the throw again skipped past first baseman Jace Turner as Leverette scored to make it 3-1 Indians. Mabry then fielded a comebacker and threw to first for the third out, exiting after the second inning as St. Marys coach Isaac Fitzgerald went through an early-season shuffling of arms.
"We're trying to save arms, just trying to see where we're at and who we can try out on the mound," Fitzgerald said. "Two innings, two innings, two innings - just experimenting."
Sturwold took over for the third and Caden Grisez was thrown out stealing second after a leadoff walk, but then it was all Fort Recovery (5-0). Gavin Faller doubled on a line drive to right field, Alex Gaerke hit a ground ball down the third base line and reached when the throw pulled Turner off first, and Wendel hit the first pitch he saw deep over Alex Hoenie's head in centerfield for an RBI double.
Fort Recovery's Reece Evers scores behind St. Marys catcher Luke Rammel on a second-inning sacrifice fly.
Reece Evers hit a grounder to third and reached on another error as Gaerke scored. Leverette hit a fly ball to the left-center gap for a two-run double to score Wendel and Evers, and after a groundout, Riggs Tobe slammed a drive to the warning track for another RBI double.
"That's what we're talking about when we're telling them to be aggressive: hit the strike," Coach Evers said. "The strike's coming, hit the strike. That's the big focus for the summer, because they didn't hit much in the spring."
Tobe moved up on a balk and scored on a wild pitch, and after Sturwold issued a walk and a hit by pitch, Fitzgerald turned to Kasey Gross, who got a pop fly to end the inning.
Gross allowed a leadoff double to Faller in the fourth but stranded him at third, in part thanks to Jacob Kaiser making a difficult play on a grounder at third. In the fifth, with the Indians two runs from sending everyone home early, Gross gave up back-to-back one-out singles to load the bases before striking out Troy Homan and getting a lineout to center to escape unharmed.
Gross finished his day with a clean sixth.
"He came in there, and just like he did in the spring, he got both feet on the ground running," Fitzgerald said. "He did a good job, made the best of where we were."
Reece Evers, the Fort Recovery starter, struggled early but managed to fight through, stranding eight runners over four innings. Gross walked in the first, moved up on a bunt, and scored on Kaiser's single to put St. Marys in front, and Evers hit Turner with a pitch to put two on before getting out of the inning.
Reece Evers picked Carter Steinberg off after a leadoff walk in the second, then hit Mabry with a pitch,threw away a pickoff and gave up a single to put runners on the corners. But he got Sturwold to watch a high curveball drop into the strike zone for strike three and the third out of the inning.
Fort Recovery Caden Grisez fields a ground ball and looks to tag St. Marys' Alex Hoenie in the third inning at the Stockade on Monday.
In the third, Reece Evers sandwiched a pair of singles around a four-pitch strikeout of Gross, but the Roughriders filled the bases on a grounder to short, as Grisez was ruled to have missed a tag of Alex Hoenie and the throw to first arrived late. Evers made sure it didn't matter, getting a pop-up and painted the outside edge for strike three on Preston Rupert.
"I think he kind of settled in a little bit," Coach Evers said. "He was high all night, but he was starting to bring it down just enough to where he was in command a little bit better. I could see his confidence growing after that first inning.
"He's known for the curveball," he added. "He's not an overpowering pitcher, but he can throw a curveball and a breaking ball, and really good ones."
Reece Evers pitched around a two-out single in the fourth, then turned the ball over to Alex Gaerke, who only allowed two Roughriders to reach over the last three innings in his first outing of the summer.
St. Marys finished with six hits and left nine baserunners.
"I did see some good things," Fitzgerald said. "Our approaches at the plate were really good, didn't chase anything too crazy. But other than that, just got to work on getting people comfortable in different spots."
The undefeated Indians, now averaging 8.2 runs per game, head into a stretch of three straight Mercer County games, starting with a trip to Celina on Wednesday.
"Don't get complacent, but don't get tight, because we don't need that," Coach Evers said. "You're hitting the ball, there's no pitcher right now who's going to overpower us, so just keep hitting."
