Wednesday, April 11th, 2018
Cardinals defeat Flyers
By Dave Stilwell
NEW BREMEN - Ryan Bertke took a no-hitter into the sixth inning and New Bremen jumped out to an early lead and then held off the Marion Local Flyers 9-4 on Tuesday at New Bremen.
The Cardinals improve to 5-3 overall with their fourth straight win and 1-1 in the Midwest Athletic Conference. Marion Local falls to 0-3 overall and 0-2 in the MAC.
New Bremen led 9-0 with one out in the sixth when Darren Hays collected the Flyers' first hit of the game with a solid single to center.
Following two walks to load the bases, New Bremen coach Chad Wells came out to get the ball from Bertke.
Koby Paul came on in relief and gave up an RBI single to John Schmidt followed by a walk, a wild pitch and a hit batsman that accounted for two more Marion Local runs before getting out of the inning.
Paul walked the first two batters in the seventh and then gave way on the mound to Justin Tenkman, who retired three of the four batters he faced to nail down the win.
"It took us a little bit to get going," Marion Local coach Paul Utendorf said. "Bertke kept us off balance early on, throwing a lot of strikes and mixing in his pitches well."
Bertke struck out nine and gave up just one hit in 51/3 innings of work. Bertke did struggle with control and walked four.
"He gave us a quality, gutty performance," Wells said of his starting pitcher. "It's cold out here, and he got up in the pitch count, but overall I'm very pleased with the effort he gave us."
New Bremen wasted little time jumping on Marion Local starter Derek Ruhenkamp.
Mitchell Hays and Tenkman led off the bottom of the first inning with back-to-back singles. After Luke Vonderhaar was hit by a pitch, Bertke lofted an RBI sacrifice fly to left.
Grant Selby followed with a two-run single to give the Cardinals a 3-0 lead after one.
New Bremen added a single run in the third and then got production from the top of the order again in the fourth.
After the first two batters had been retired, Hays drew a walk, followed by a single from Tenkman. Vonderhaar then ripped a two-run double to left.
Bertke added a run scoring single to put the Cards up 7-0 after four innings.
New Bremen capped its scoring in the fifth. Patrick Wells led off with a double, and advanced to third when Brice Blickle reached on an error. Both Wells and Blickle would later score on ground outs.
Tenkman had three of New Bremen's 12 hits. Vonderhaar and Bertke each had two hits and two RBIs.
"The kids have been finding a way to get it done." Wells said. "It's been a combined effort with a lot of team wins with different kids coming through each time."
Marion Local scored four runs on just three hits -- all singles. The Flyers stranded nine base runners as they struggled to take advantage of three New Bremen errors and seven walks.
"That's early baseball in Ohio," Utendorf said. "Three out of our first five innings we stranded a guy at third base. We just couldn't push a guy across. But the best thing is we get to play a couple more games this week."
The Flyers play host to Versailles in another MAC contest Thursday and travel to Sidney Lehman on Friday.
New Bremen is at Fort Recovery on Thursday and hosts Fort Loramie on Friday.
