Strike Force

ST. HENRY - In a game where strikeouts were the norm, a walk decided the Fort Recovery-St. Henry baseball battle.

Bryce Brookhart drew a walk after running the count full with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to help St. Henry snap a five-game losing streak and pick up its first Midwest Athletic Conference win of the season in a 2-1 decision over the Indians at the Wally Post Athletic Complex.

"It's almost been two weeks since our last win," said St. Henry coach Mike Gast, a nod to the Redskins' April 10 win over Ottawa-Glandorf. "It got to the point the last couple games that we were waiting for something bad to happen. (Tonight) we played with confidence."

With Ryan Uhlenhake dealing on the mound, the Redskins' confidence level could be sky-high. The senior scattered two hits and five walks over seven innings and struck out 11. In the bottom of the first, he provided St. Henry with its first run after Tyler Dehan reached first base on a dropped strike three and Uhlenhake singled him home.

"That's the best Ryan's been all year," said Gast. "That's good to see. He still needs to clean up working from behind. He was great. He was fun to watch tonight."

After allowing that RBI single to Uhlenhake, Fort Recovery pitcher Daniel Patch went into shutdown mode, retiring 18 straight batters at one point and not issuing a walk while striking out 11. Patch only went to a three-ball count twice in the game and none came after the second inning.

"We're super proud of Daniel. We love playing behind him," said Fort Recovery coach Jerry Kaup. "We would have loved to get the win for him."

"Patch was extremely efficient," said Gast. "He was impressive. I kept asking the pitch count when he came in because he was so good."

While Patch, who finished with 11 strikeouts, was cooking on the mound, the Indians were finally able to level the game in the top of the sixth when Cobe Wendel led off with a walk. Riley Will bunted his teammate to second to bring up Kendrick Wendel, who lofted a deep fly to center that went to the fence for a double, easily scoring Cobe Wendel for the equalizer. Uhlenhake bounced back with two straight outs to end the threat and then pitched a scoreless seventh before giving way to Dehan, who pitched two perfect innings to get to the bottom of the ninth.

Troy Homan came on to relieve Patch, who had reached 98 pitches, in the ninth. Dehan drew the first walk off an Indian pitcher to start the inning and then stole second. Shane Franck reached first on a dropped strike three, avoiding the tag to put runners at first and third. Fort Recovery intentionally walked Uhlenhake to load the bases for Grant Kunkler, who struck out for the first out. Evan Buschur then popped out to Homan on an infield fly rule play to bring up Brookhart, who had just five plate appearances and four at-bats coming into the at-bat.

Homan threw three straight balls before coming back with two straight called strikes and then a foul ball before Brookhart took the seventh pitch of the at-bat for a ball to score Dehan for the game-winner.

"It's a hard one to lose," said Kaup. "We can go back and talk about things could have happened or should have happened. But this is how ballgames are played. Very good games."

St. Henry hosts Celina for the teams' second meeting of 2021 on Monday. Fort Recovery is off until Tuesday when the Indians host Coldwater.