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Coldwater's Derek Dues (6) tries to apply the tag to Fort Recovery's Mason Diller during Sunday's Mercer County ACME tournament at Fort Recovery. Diller was safe on the play.
By GARY R. RASBERRY and TOM HAINES
sports@dailystandard.com
FORT RECOVERY - Eleven days after playing in a slugfest that had a combined 25 runs scored, Coldwater and Fort Recovery battled for the first berth to the District 4 ACME baseball tournament in the Mercer County winner's bracket final.
Fort Recovery got three runs in the first inning, but Cale Wenning closed the door over the next four innings as the Cavaliers rallied for the 6-4 win at the LeFevre Baseball/Softball Complex.
The Cavalier win concluded over 10 hours of baseball after Saturday's rain prompted a quadruple-header, with three elimination games before the Fort-Coldwater matchup.
Marion Local came through big to start the day, beating Celina 9-1 in the first loser's bracket game of the day. St. Henry took the second game in beating Parkway 9-0.
In the final elimination game, the Flyers used a five-run fifth inning to pull ahead and end the Redskins' season with a 9-6 decision.
The Flyers now face Fort Recovery today at 5 p.m. in the losers' bracket final to decide the second district qualifier at Veterans Field in Coldwater. The winner then faces Coldwater in a one-game sectional championship to determine seeding. The district starts Friday at Celina's Montgomery Field.
Fort Recovery shortstop Alex Gaerke steps on second base ahead of Coldwater's Mason Welsch on an attempted double play in the first inning.
The Cavaliers scored in the top of the first when Karsyn Homan came home via an error on a double-play attempt, but the Indians quickly came back with three runs off Cale Wenning in the bottom of the first as Alex Gaerke, Reece Wendel and Jacob Foote had RBI singles.
Wenning, though, buckled down. After allowing a one-out walk to Austin Siegrist in the second, he retired the next 11 batters in order with four strikeouts.
"I love his pace," said Coldwater coach Tom Brunswick said of Wenning. "He gets the ball, gets the sign and pitches to contact. Thought we were going to get out of the first inning, but had a bad-hop (single). Those things happen. After that, he threw up a bunch of zeroes."
With Wenning shutting down the Indians, the Cavaliers wasted no time coming back, tying the game in the second. Caden Grisez gave up a walk to Wenning and a single to Brady Hamilton. Two outs later, Brady Lefeld singled home both runs to tie the game before getting thrown out at second trying to move ahead.
After a scoreless third, Hamilton and Rudy Kremer drew back-to-back leadoff walks. Later, with runners at second and third, Derek Dues grounded to third, but the throw to second for the force was off the mark, allowing Hamilton to score the go-ahead run. Lefeld sacrificed to move the runners up and then Homan scored pinch-runner Braylon Dawson to make it 5-3.
"Big base hit from Brady Lefeld to tie it," said Brunswick. "We had some good situational hitting with guys on third with less than two outs and got a couple of ground balls to score some runs."
Coldwater added another run in the sixth as Dues led off with a double and later scored on a Homan fielder's choice.
Wenning's out streak ended when Gaerke led off the sixth with a single. One out later, Reece Wendel walked, with a wild pitch moving the runners up a base. Jacob Foote grounded to third to bring home Gaerke to make it 6-4.
After Wenning walked Derek Klenke, Brunswick called in Aaron Kaup from left field to get the final out of the inning. Kaup needed just one pitch to entice pinch-hitter Grant Fortkamp to pop up to Dues at short for the third out.
In the seventh, Kaup struck out Siegrist before getting Grisez to pop to short and Mason Diller to fly to center to end the game.
"Fort Recovery's a nice ballclub," said Brunswick. "Lot of energy on both sides tonight. Just a good win for us."
Lefeld and Homan combined to go 4-for-7 with four RBI in the top two spots in the Coldwater batting order.
Gaerke had two of the five Fort Recovery hits.
After putting up nine runs against Celina in the opening game, Marion looked ready to keep up the momentum with two runs in the top of the first on Hayden Poeppelman's two-run double.
St. Henry, though, had just scored nine in a shutout of Parkway and answered with two runs in the bottom of the first, then took a 3-2 lead in the second when Jack Kaiser's fly to center allowed Nick Lefeld to score. The Redskins then added another run in the bottom of the fourth when Lefeld scored on Michael Gonzalez's double.
Marion Local's Ethan Heitkamp gets a high-five from coach Max Link rounding third base after he hit a solo home run in the fifth inning.
But the Flyers started their comeback in grand fashion as Ethan Heitkamp took Tate Boeckman's first pitch of the fifth inning over the left-center fence to make it 4-3. St. Henry skipper Tyler Bruns immediately brought on Buschur, who was greeted by a Poeppelman single. One out later, Derek Knapke singled followed by Trey Brookhart with an RBI single to tie the game.
Aaron Heitkamp followed with an RBI groundout to break the title, then Ethan Osterholt had an RBI single. Ian Rindler then rounded out the scoring with an RBI double before Buschur got the final out.
"We felt going into (the St. Henry game) that we were hot coming off (the Celina game). We felt good," said Marion coach Max Link. "I think from the get-go, I felt the energy from the kids and they brought it to the plate. It really helped us."
Aaron Heitkamp's RBI single scored Ethan Heitkamp for an insurance run in the sixth, then Rindler led off the seventh with a solo shot to left-center.
Marion Local's Trey Brookhart (9) waits for the ball as St. Henry's Drew Langenkamp tries to score on a wild pitch during Sunday's game in the Mercer County ACME tournaement. Brookhart tagged out Langenkamp.
Meanwhile, Brookhart battled through, allowing just two runs over the final three innings as Gonzalez singled home pinch-runner Hudson Schmitz in the fifth and then Jared Nietfeld singled home Boeckman with one out in the seventh. Any thought of a rally, though, ended when David Clune grounded back to Brookhart, who started a 1-6-3 double play to end the game.
"From my knowledge, it was his first big game in a varsity setting," Link said of Brookhart. "I told him his job was to throw strikes and nothing else (only one walk and one hit batsman) and let your defense play. That's exactly what he did."
Rindler went 3-for-4 with two RBI, and Poeppelman and Brookhart each had two hits and two RBI.
Gonzalez finished 3-for-3 with two RBI for St. Henry.
The Flyers started the day with a win over the Bulldogs behind a complete game from Osterholt and hits up and down the lineup.
Poeppelman doubled to centerfield to score Parker Hess and Austin Niekamp hit a two-run single to make it 3-0 in the first inning. Poeppelman then hit a two-out, two-run triple in the fourth, and Niekamp added another RBI single. Rindler drove in two runs with a fifth-inning triple, and Hess tacked on another run in the seventh.
Osterholt hit his one spot of trouble in the fourth, allowing a single by Luke Maxwell and walking the next two batters before Maxwell scored on a fielder's choice. But he struck out Ohyn May to end the threat, then stranded three runners over the last three innings.
All told, the Flyers had 15 hits, led by Poeppelman's 3-for-4 day. Hess, Niekamp, Kam Eifert, Brookhart and Osterholt had two hits each.
Osterholt held Celina to four hits and three walks while striking out four.
LINESCORE
Marion Local 300 320 1 - 9 15 2
Celina 000 100 0 - 1 4 1
WP - Osterholt
LP - Maxwell
2B - ML: Poeppelman (2).
3B - ML: Poeppelman, Rindler.
Max Delzeith turned in a sterling start for the Redskins to beat the Panthers in the second game of the day.
Delzeith went seven innings and allowed four hits without a walk, striking out 15. He threw 86 pitches, 66 for strikes.
Drew Langenkamp, David Clune and Jack Huelsman hit RBI singles and Gonzalez worked a walk to force in another run as St. Henry went up 4-0 in the first. Boeckman scored on an error in the second and Huelsman hit a two-run single to make it 7-0.
Langenkamp scored on a wild pitch in the fourth and Kaiser came home on an error in the sixth to round out the scoring.
Langenkamp and Kaiser had two hits apiece. Kolt Harner hit 3-for-3 with a double for Parkway.
LINESCORE
Parkway 000 000 0 - 0 4 5
St. Henry 431 001 x - 9 9 0
WP - Delzeith
LP - J. Yoder
2B - P: Harner.
3B - SH: Boeckman.
