The Daily Standard
Story Archive
By TOM HAINES and GARY R. RASBERRY
sports@dailystandard.com
COLDWATER/ST. HENRY - Monday's rainout of the Mercer County ACME sectional tournament made for a change of plans - and a new venue - to keep the tournament on its schedule.
Coldwater and St. Henry each hosted two games as the winners of the first round games in each bracket stuck around and played the team that had a first-round bye in the nightcap.
At Coldwater, the host Cavaliers blew open a tight game in the sixth inning to move into the winners' bracket final with a 10-1 win over Celina, who had defeated Marion Local 9-1 in the first game of the matchup.
Meanwhile in St. Henry, the host Redskins were stymied from the first pitch as Parkway came away with a 13-2 win in the opening game of the night. The good times did not last as second-seeded Fort Recovery advanced to Thursday's winner's bracket final against Coldwater with a 16-0 win in five innings over the Panthers.
Tonight's schedule will feature two elimination games. Marion Local will take on Parkway at 6 p.m. at Coldwater with Celina and St. Henry facing off in the nightcap around 8 p.m.
Fort Recovery and Coldwater battle for one of the two berths to the district tournament on Thursday at 6 p.m. with an elimination game to follow.
Coldwater shortstop Baylen Blockberger makes a diving catch in foul territory before colliding with third baseman Miles Pottkotter in the first inning against Celina in the Mercer County ACME sectionals at Veterans Field on Tuesday.
The Cavaliers led 3-0 heading into the sixth but had gotten Celina starter Dale Secrest's pitch count high enough to end his night, and the Bulldogs' bullpen proved much easier to hit. Caleb Stephenson walked the bases loaded, then walked in a run and allowed another to score on a wild pitch in the sixth, and when Zach Greber took over, AJ Harlamert sliced a two-run double down the right field line to make it 7-0.
Harlamert stole third and scored on a throwing error, Cale Wenning hit an RBI double to the fence in right-center and Baylen Blockberger hit a ground ball behind second base, where Nick Steinbrunner slipped and then threw off-course to first to allow the 10th run to score.
"We played well, it just got away from us in the bottom of the sixth with walks," Celina coach Bill Rockwell said. "You can't walk guys."
With the game tight early on, Coldwater starter Mason Welsch was dealing, facing the minimum over four innings. Zander Jones provided the lone blemish with a line drive to right-center in the first inning, but he was thrown out trying to stretch it to a double, and Blockberger made a sliding catch on a pop fly despite colliding with third baseman Miles Pottkotter to start a stretch of 11 consecutive batters retired.
"He was really dialed in, he was focused," Coldwater coach Tom Brunswick said. "He used his defense, he got ahead of a lot of hitters, and when he got behind, he had the ability to come back and get a few of those hitters."
In the fifth, Carson Staugler reached on a dropped fly ball and Zach Greber hit a two-out single, but Luke Maxwell hit a sharp ground ball right to Pottkotter at third, who stepped on the bag to end the threat. Zander Jones reached first on Welsch's only walk with two outs in the sixth, but Max Baumstark grounded out to leave him there.
Welsch allowed just four runners to reach base all game and finished with seven strikeouts.
"He threw pretty hard, he got ahead, threw his off-speed for a strike," Rockwell said. "He kept us off-balance and made it really hard for us to string hits together. That was the biggest difference. He definitely didn't walk guys, and he made you earn everything you got."
The Cavaliers got to Secrest in the first, as Welsch lined a two-out single to right field and went to second on a wild pitch and Wenning followed with a laser down the left field line for an RBI single.
Braylen Harlamert hit a two-out grounder to shortstop in the second and beat the throw, which went high to allow Owen Kunk to dash home from third. Brady Lefeld added a run in the fourth when Pottkotter was picked off first with two outs, as Pottkotter kept the rundown going long enough for Lefeld to cross the plate.
"He did a real nice job of staying in the rundown, and Brady Lefeld did a nice job making the break home," Brunswick said. "Once he took off, he went hard all the way and scored before Miles got tagged out."
Secrest stranded two more runners in the fifth before giving way to the bullpen.
"He was commanding his fastball, throwing the first pitch for a strike mostly, he was keeping hitters off balance," Rockwell said. "The one thing that hurt Dale a little bit, he went to a lot of deep counts, which really raised his pitch count."
Marion Local's Isaac Muhlenkamp (14) goes up to get the ball as Celina's Nick Steinbrunner slides into third base at Veterans Field in Coldwater.
The Bulldogs drew first blood with a two-out rally in the first inning. Baumstark hit a high fly ball to the right-center gap and went all the way to third, and Stephenson slapped a ground ball past drawn-in shortstop Griffin Bruns to bring home the first run.
In the third, Nick Steinbrunner walked and was balked to second, and Zander Jones slammed the ball at left fielder Rylan Stucke, who backpedaled, reached up and missed. Steinbrunner scored easily and Jones went to second with a double.
Marion starter Damon Cramer hit Baumstark with a pitch, then walked Stephenson and Staugler to bring in another run before giving way to Ethan Osterholt, who allowed Baumstark to score on a wild pitch and gave up a two-run single to Secrest to make it 6-0.
"Definitely a tough one to swallow," Link said. "Not the performance you want to put out at the start of a tournament. Makes it hard for teams to respect you. I think that we have come a long way through the season, but we didn't show it tonight."
Cramer gave the Flyers a run back in the fourth, as Bruns doubled and stole third and Cramer hit a bloop single to right to drive him in. But in the bottom half, Steinbrunner reached on an error and Zander Jones hit an RBI triple, then scored on a groundout to make it 8-1.
Steinbrunner drove in a run with a double in the sixth.
Celina's defense erased two runners early on, starting when Ethan Heitkamp hit a fly ball to left-center in the first inning. Bruns took off from second, but Secrest made the catch on the run and fired to second, and Brody Shulte-Arnold recovered after losing the ball and dove back to the bag to beat Bruns for an inning-ending double play.
Shulte-Arnold also started a double play after Aaron Heitkamp's one-out single in the third, and in the seventh, he made a tumbling catch in shallow right field to take away a hit from Ethan Osterholt.
"Zander Jones pitched an absolute gem, we hit the snot out of the baseball, we fielded the baseball great," Rockwell said. "It was just a great game. We played hard, and the guys came ready to play and it showed."
St. Henry's Drew Schwieterman (00) gets ready to catch the ball against Parkway.
The sixth-seeded Panthers wasted no time getting on the board, sending 11 batters to the plate in the top of the first and scoring five times as St. Henry starting pitcher Luke Beyke managed just one out in facing six batters, allowing four walks and a three-run double to Ben Bates.
Evan Bowers came on in relief of Beyke and cooled down the Panthers for 2 2/3 innings, but in the fourth Parkway came up big again in sending 12 batters to the plate and scoring six runs off David Clune.
Kolt Harner, Braxton Ford and Carson Kirby each drove in a run via bases-loaded walks and Trent Rollins added an RBI single. Max Delzeith came on to pitch the final 3 2/3 innings, allowing two runs in the top of the seventh.
Meanwhile, Ford came through with a big effort on the mound for Parkway, scattering three hits and three walks over five innings. The only inning St. Henry touched him up for runs was in the third, when Gavyn Lange and Logan Link scored on Drew Schwieterman's two-out double. Ford quickly dispatched the next batter and got through the next two innings unscathed before Devon Crouch closed out the game with two scoreless innings.
Rollins, Crouch and Bates each had two hits for Parkway in the first game with Bates driving in four runs on the night.
Hayden Boeckman was the only Redskin with a multi-hit game, going 2-for-3.
Fort Recovery's Alex Dues throws to first to complete a double play as Parkway's Xavier Samples slides during Tuesday's ACME sectional game at St. Henry.
Any hopes of Parkway pulling off a major upset and beating the second-seeded Indians were shattered right off the bat as Fort Recovery scored three runs each in the first and second innings and quickly applied the coup de grâce with a seven-run third inning.
Caden Grisez and Mason Diller each had RBI singles and Gavin Faller added an RBI double in the first inning. Alex Gaerke added an RBI double in the second with Diller getting his second straight RBI single.
The Indians sent 11 batters to the plate in the third as Xavier Samples, the third Panther pitcher of the game after Rollins and Brayden Bruns each threw an inning, was hit hard. Gaerke helped his own cause with a two-run single with Sage Wendel adding a two-run single of his own.
Fort Recovery closed out the game with three runs in the bottom of the fourth. A balk scored Owen Knapke and later Rex Leverette added a two-run single.
Gaerke did not allow a hit and walked three in his three innings of work before handing the ball to Leverette, who allowed two hits and two walks over the final two innings but kept the Panthers off the scoreboard.
Grisez went 3-for-4 for Fort Recovery, while Reece Wendel, Gaerke, Diller and Alex Dues each added two hits.
