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MINSTER - Fort Loramie swept a doubleheader Monday in the Auglaize-Shelby ACME baseball sectional tournament, ending New Bremen's summer with a 11-1, six-inning win in the opener to secure a district berth and then beating host Minster 3-1 in the nightcap for the sectional title.
Marion Local will take on the Redskins to open the district on 5 p.m. in Celina on Friday. Minster will play Coldwater at 7 p.m.
A disastrous first inning buried the Cardinals, and the bats couldn't cut into the deficit over the next five innings.
"First inning we gave them seven runs, and I don't think they earned one of them," New Bremen coach Bryce Monnin said. "I think we gave them every single run there. Just three or four routine plays we can't make. It's tough when you're missing eight guys and you don't have any subs, and guys are out in spots they haven't played all year.
"I think you take the first inning out of it, we go to the sixth inning in a reasonable spot there."
Third baseman Jack Sailer slipped charging a slow grounder to allow leadoff man Sam Goubeaux to reach, and after a five-pitch walk, Gabe Hart hit a dribbler back to the mound. Pitcher Brady Pape gloved it but fired wide of first, and Goubeaux raced home as the ball went into right field.
New Bremen's Dylan Wente (13) leaps as Fort Loramie's Gabe Hart (1) touches first base.
Louis Hart then lined a single to left-center field and Jace Ruhenkamp drove in two runs with a single to right. Pape struck out Chase Bornhorst, but Spencer Knouff snuck a grounder through the left side, and after another strikeout, Zach Dues hit a line drive that fell at the edge of the grass in left field, scoring another run.
That brought Goubeaux back up, and he lined a single to right-center to score Knouff and sent Dues to third. Dues and Goubeaux executed a double steal to make it 7-1 before Pape struck out Dylan Meyer to end the inning.
From then on, Pape was able to keep Fort Loramie in check. Louis Hart reached on an error in the second but was stranded on second, and Pape worked around a two-out walk in the third.
In the fourth, Meyer led off with a walk but was thrown out trying for third on Gabe Hart's single. Hart was caught stealing, and after Louis Hart walked, Pape induced a groundout to strand him at first.
Monnin went to Sailer for the fifth inning, and Pape left charged with two earned runs on six hits and four walks while striking out four.
"He threw strikes," Monnin said. "He threw strikes and tried to make the batter beat him. The defense just didn't come through. We tell the guys all the time to pitch to contact and let the defense make plays, and we didn't make plays."
The Cardinals scored their only run in the first, as Caleb Keller opened the game with a walk, moved up on a bunt, and slid under the throw on Sailer's single to right.
Their best chance to add on came in the fourth. Brady Keller was hit by a pitch, but caught stealing, and Sailer walked before two singles loaded the bases. On the mound, Gabe Hart bore down and struck out AJ Rismiller and Pape on seven pitches to end the threat.
"Our pitchers threw well," Monnin said. "We put ourselves in spots to score runs. We just didn't come through."
But Sailer struggled to throw strikes, walking two straight with one out in the fifth and giving up a soft single before Goubeaux hit a sacrifice fly to make it 8-1. In the sixth, he sandwiched two hit batsmen around a walk, with a balk that scored Louis Hart, before Monnin turned to Owen Bornhorst.
Chase Bornhorst hit an RBI double on the first pitch, making it 10-1. Eli Grudich laid down a squeeze bunt on the right side to score the game-ending run.
New Bremen finishes the summer 0-9.
"The younger guys like Brady Pape, Reese Mummey, who wasn't here, a lot of those guys have stepped up," Monnin said. "In the middle infield, Caleb Keller. Guys stepped up in positions of need. I like where we're going next spring, but we've got a lot to work on."
The Wildcats only mustered three hits against Aiden Berning, so when Fort Loramie started to scratch out runs in the middle innings, they were unable to respond.
Minster starter Dominick Meyer gave up a leadoff single to Dues in the third inning. Goubeaux hit into a fielder's choice, but stole second and then went to third on a wild pitch as Dylan Meyer walked.
Gabe Hart was then hit by a pitch, and Louis Hart smacked a ground ball to Louis Magoto at third base, who stepped on the bag and fired to first. The throw pulled Ian Homan off the bag, and though he swiped a tag, the umpire ruled that it was late, allowing Dues to score the game's first run.
In the fourth, Chase Bornhorst walked with one out and Knouff moved him over with a bunt. Dues then walked and Goubeaux was hit by a pitch to load the bases, chasing Meyer.
Dylan Meyer hit a line drive that died in front of shortstop Andrew Wiss, allowing Bornhorst to score and everyone to reach safely, before Gabe Hart struck out to leave the lead at 2-0.
The Redskins added their final run against reliever Reese Beair in the sixth. Again Dues led off with a single, this time a bunt down the third base line. Caleb Couse made a diving catch in centerfield and another fielder's choice retired Dues at second, but then Gabe Hart ripped a double down the left field line to put runners on second and third.
Louis Hart hit a sharp grounder to third that tied up Magoto on a bounce, allowing a run to score, before Beair struck out Berning to end the inning.
Minster catcher Dylan Heitkamp tags out Fort Loramie's Aiden Berning on a throw from Caleb Couse in the fifth inning of the Auglaize/Shelby County ACME sectional tournament at Hanover Street Park on Monday.
But the Redskins left far more on the field. They stranded 13 runners, and Couse cut down two at the plate, beating Berning as he tried to score from second on Knouff's single in the fifth and nailing Bornhorst trying to come home on Goubeaux's single in the seventh. With Bornhorst, the throw beat him so handily that he tried to retreat to third and was tagged out in a rundown.
At the plate, though, the Wildcats couldn't get going. Couse led off the first with a double but was left standing on third, Andrew Ketner was stranded on third after a one-out single in the third, and Beair was thrown out stealing second in the fifth.
They got their lone run on a two-out rally in the sixth, as Ian Homan reached and went to second as third baseman Louis Hart threw the ball into foul territory. Berning tried to pick him off second base and threw the ball away, allowing him to scamper to third and putting him in position to score on Dylan Heitkamp's grounder through the left side.
Magoto nearly extended the rally, slicing a line drive up the middle, but Bornhorst at second base laid out and snatched it out of the air for the third out, and Minster went down quietly in the seventh.
