Green Wave ends Indians' dream season

COLUMBUS - It's been 62 years since Fort Recovery last played in the state baseball tournament, and the current Indians were bound and determined to make sure this time around was an extended visit.

Newark Catholic, on the other hand, was looking for a third straight trip to the Division IV title game.

The Green Wave scored three unearned runs in the top of the fourth to come away with the 4-0 win in the state semifinals at Huntington Park in Columbus.

Newark Catholic (21-11) takes on Berlin Center Western Reserve at 1 p.m. Saturday in the title game. The Blue Devils defeated Hicksville 5-2 in the second semifinal. Fort Recovery ends its dream season at 25-6.

"We thought coming in that it would be a competitive game," Fort Recovery coach Jerry Kaup said. "They play a good schedule. We play a good schedule. We knew it would be tight. Unfortunately, we made a couple of mistakes they were able to capitalize on."

Fort Recovery's Jackson Hobbs and Newark Catholic's Gabe Morris came with their A-games, trading zeroes through the first three innings.

The Green Wave first threatened in the top of the second when Morris reached on an error, Nick Halloy singled and Jack Wollenberg reached on an error to load the bases. Hobbs struck out Nic Cavinee for the first out and Zac Walker lofted a fly to right. Ben Will caught the ball and made a perfect throw to catcher Chase Bruns for the tag on the running Morris to end the inning.

In the fourth, Morris got a ball over the head of Will in right for a one-out double. Hobbs got the second out, but Wollenberg beat out a bouncer to third for a single to put runners on the corners for Cavinee, who grounded to short, but Jacob Homan's throw was off the mark, allowing pinch-runner Joe Moreman to score the first run. Zac Walker followed with an RBI single to score Wollenberg for the second run. Hobbs was then called for a balk with Jody Mummey at the plate. Pinch-runner Caleb Claggett scored for third run, as a result.

"There were some jitters early, but I thought we got through those," Kaup said. "We just fielded the ball and pulled (the first baseman) off the base. Then (Newark Catholic) got a big hit. That just happens. When you're in a big game, you're under a magnifying glass. Newark Catholic won't let you get away with that. We gave them an extra base, an extra out, and they took advantage of it."

The Green Wave put one more run on the board in the sixth. After Wollenberg singled with two outs and stole second, Cavinee hit a deep fly to left for an RBI double.

Other than the one inning, Hobbs was in his usual form, scattering seven hits and not walking a batter. Hobbs needed just 84 pitches (57 for strikes) to go the distance.

"Jackson went out there and does what he usually does," Kaup said. "He's going to get 21 outs and throw 70-80 pitches. Unfortunately, we didn't back him up as well as we would have liked today."

The Indians were able to hit Morris, getting eight in the ballgame, but were unable to get runners past second base. Over the first three innings, Fort Recovery stranded two runners twice and left 10 on base in the game.

"I think we had runners on first and second in three of the first five innings," Kaup said. "All we needed was that big two-out hit, and we couldn't get it. That's baseball.

"We wanted to get his pitch count up," Kaup said of Morris. "We did a good job the first couple innings. ... We did what we wanted to do. Just couldn't get the hit to score a run."

Morris pitched into the seventh but came out after 105 pitches when Bruns led off with a single. Engle, who will likely start the title game, came on and promptly walked Mitch Stammen. Engle came back to strike out Cole Wendel, enticed Hobbs to fly to right and then ended the game by getting Backs to look at strike three.

"The thing that is tough is you'll see some tears. That's a good thing for me," Kaup said. "It means we're sad because we'll be losing something that was special. The team was special. Were we afraid to lose? No. The thing that's tough to take for this special group is this special season is over. The seniors will move on, but they'll all have these memories for a lifetime."