Cats top Flyers

MARIA STEIN - Minster coach Mike Wiss has been looking for a clear-cut ace on his pitching staff to emerge ever since the graduation of Aaron Ernst last year.

Sophomore left-hander Austin Brown is making his case.

Coming off a no-hitter against Versailles last week, Brown encored with a complete-game, three-hit effort in a 7-1 victory over Marion Local on Tuesday at the Airport in Maria Stein.

"I'm happy with how he's maturing as a sophomore," Wiss said. "He's able to last long and he's got some nice movement to his ball. … We waited a little bit long and we squandered a couple scoring opportunities early that we'd like to have back, with bad baserunning, etc. But to his credit here lately, he hasn't walked many.

"He's definitely pitched well enough to make us think (he's the guy) right now," Wiss added.

Brown struck out eight and walked four as he improved to 4-0 on the season. Alex Lehmkuhl went 3-for-3 with a double and a run scored for Minster (11-5, 3-3 MAC) in a game that was tight up until the seventh.

Brandon Fleck went 2-for-3 with one run scored for Marion Local (2-8, 0-6 MAC), which had its two game winning streak snapped.

"It was wet tonight, but both teams had to play through it," Marion Local coach Paul Utendorf said. "It was a game of mental toughness. Hats off to Brown. He kept us off-balance. It was honestly a 3-1 game going into the sixth inning and we booted two double plays up the middle. That gave them four runs and that was kind of it."

Minster stranded the bases loaded in the first as Marion starter Adam Franck struck out the final two batters. The Wildcats, however, didn't let the scoring opportunity slip away in the second.

Franck walked Austin Shinabery to open the second. A sacrifice bunt by Adam Knapke and an infield single by Anthony Boehnlein moved Shinabery to third for Jack Olberding, who made it 1-0 with a sac fly to right field.

The Flyers tied the game in the bottom half of the inning. Brandon Fleck led the frame with a single and advanced to third after a bunt by Reece Eifert and a groundout by Justin Albers. Fleck scored on a wild pitch.

In the fifth, Franck walked Boehnlein to lead the fifth and then he committed an error on a bunt by Olberding. Derek Ruhenkamp replaced him on the mound and immediately threw a wild pitch to put pinch runner Jacob Hoying and Olberding in scoring position for Schmiesing, who followed with an RBI groundout. An error on the play allowed Olberding to score for a 3-1 lead.

Marion Local had a chance to tie it in the home sixth. Brown issued consecutive one-out walks to Darrin Hays and Ruhenkamp. The runners were bunted into scoring position by Franck, with Brown fielding the ball and throwing a dart to first just in time to get the out. That brought to the plate Fleck, who had entered the at-bat 2-for-2. But Brown won this battle, striking out Fleck for the final out.

"We had guys on first and second and (Brown) was struggling to throw strikes a little bit," Utendorf said. "Franck laid a heckuva bunt down the third baseline and their guy made a great play. But we still had guys on second and third with two outs, and Fleck was up at the plate for us. He was 2-for-2, so we were playing for one big hit there. He didn't get it. That's baseball."

Then Minster broke open the game in the seventh with four runs on the benefit of one hit and two errors. August Boehnlein had an RBI walk, Shinabery delivered a two-run double, Knapke dropped down a squeeze bunt for a run, and the middle infield of the Flyers committed two errors.

The team that made fewer mistakes won. The Wildcats played error-free defense behind Brown and flashed some leather in key situations.

"Two plays that I'm going to go back to are when Austin Brown fielded the bunt over here on a lefty and flipped it over there from the third-base line as a lefty. The other one was when the ball went off of (Brown's glove) and Isaac Schmiesing came to get it from shortstop. That was a bang-bang play with a wet ball," Wiss said.

Marion Local tallied four errors and its pitching duo of Franck and Ruhenkamp combined for 11 walks. Franck lasted four-plus innings, allowing three hits and three runs (two earned) with two strikeouts and five walks in taking the loss.

Minster and Marion both return to MAC play on Thursday. The Wildcats travel to New Knoxville and the Flyers head to Delphos St. John's.