Hanging on

FORT RECOVERY - Start strong, finish strong.

That's the way Fort Recovery scored its runs on Monday night.

The Indians plated three in the first and, after Coldwater tied the game through the next four innings, plated three more in the bottom of the sixth, and then held off a late Cavalier rally to pick up the 6-5 win in Fort Recovery in summer ACME baseball action.

"It was exciting," said Fort Recovery coach Jerry Kaup, whose squad improved to 4-2. "I'm proud of how Alex (Dues) battled the entire game. We committed (five) errors and put him in trouble repeatedly and he was able to fight through that."

Dues worked his way through 6 1/3 innings, scattering nine hits and two walks while striking out six. The defense came up big as catcher Jackson Ervin threw out one runner trying to steal and the Indians picked off two more runners.  

"We had a lot of opportunities," said Coldwater coach Tom Brunswick. "We had guys on base with less than two outs and got into good hitters' counts, but couldn't put a good at-bat together to drive the runs in."

Fort Recovery scored its first three runs in the bottom of the first, as Wyatt Bihn singled home Landon Post and later came home on Bo Thien's double. Thien later scored as part of a double steal with Rex Leverette.

"We started strong in other games, but haven't been able to carry it through," said Kaup. "Tonight, we were able to finish stronger."

Over the next four innings, Coldwater's Marcel Blasingame scattered two walks and a hit batsmen, allowing the Cavaliers to try and work their way back. In the second, Evan Harlamert was awarded home plate after a fly ball to left when a defender interfered with him tagging up at third. In the third, an error allowed Blasingame to score to cut it to 3-2 and then in the fifth Blasingame singled home Rece Mescher to knot the game.

Kayden Baumer came on in relief of Blasingame in the sixth and quickly got an out. Ervin singled and Thien doubled to put two on for Leverette, who slashed a single to right to clear the bases. Leverette later scored on a wild pitch to make it 6-3 with the Indians needing three outs to win.

Keegan Bruggeman and Braylen Harlamert started the top of the seventh with back-to-back singles. Mescher flew to left for the first out, but a bloop single by Baumer loaded the bases. Kaup brought on Troy Homan to try and get out of the jam. With Blasingame at the plate, Homan uncorked a wild pitch to score Bruggeman. Thien made a diving catch of a pop-up in foul territory for the second out, but with Adam Hrycko, who was 3-for-3, at the plate, Homan threw another wild pitch to score Braylen Harlamert and moved the tying run 90 feet closer. Homan bowed his back and struck Hrycko out looking to end the game.

"We made some plays," said Kaup said. "Those are big plays. We talk about making plays that change a baseball game. We were able to do that tonight."

"We didn't play good enough baseball to win tonight," said Brunswick. "We ran into outs, didn't take bases when we needed to and kicked the ball around a bit."

Both teams make road trips on Wednesday. Fort Recovery travels to Russia and Coldwater takes on Versailles.