A marathon of a contest

ST. MARYS - The way St. Henry and St. Marys were playing, it seemed like the only way the game would end was if the curfew at K.C. Geiger Park came into play.

St. Marys tied the game at 1-1 in the sixth and both teams scored in the eighth before Easton Craft's 11th-inning single scored Jack Boos to give the Roughriders a 3-2 win over the Redskins for the team's first win of the summer.

Pitching and defense played big roles in the contest, especially the pitching of Roughrider Ethan Hollandsworth. Hollandsworth walked one and scattered six hits over eight innings with a dominating 16 strikeouts. A.J. Dieringer took over in the ninth and allowed a walk and four strikeouts in three innings of relief.

"Pitching was phenomenal," said St. Marys coach Isaac Fitzgerald. "They had a lot of control out there. Good mix of pitches. Just kept them off-balance all game."

"Six hits and five or six strikeouts looking," said St. Henry coach Tyler Bruns. "That's pretty poor. You have to give their pitchers credit. They pitched well. But 20 strikeouts is unacceptable for anyone."

St. Henry starter Ben Moorman allowed just one hit and an unearned run over 6 1/3 innings. St. Marys was able to get baserunners via seven walks and two hit batsmen against Moorman, but the Redskins came up big on defense, picking off one runner, catching another stealing and making a great throw to the plate to get another runner out.

"Defensively we played well until late in the game," said Bruns. "Was hoping for a little bit more."

"It's bittersweet. You see your guys hitting the ball hard," said Fitzgerald. "I keep telling them to hit the ball hard and it will fall. It's not always going to be right at them."

St. Henry scored first in the third inning when Tyler Schwieterman was hit by a pitch and went to second on an errant pickoff throw. After two strikeouts, Logan Dehan singled home Schwieterman to make it 1-0.

After leaving the bases loaded in the fifth, the Roughriders broke through and tied the game in the sixth as Ty Kiehl reached on an error, stole second, went to third on a fly ball and came home on Boos' flyout to left.

In the eighth, Nolan Kunkler led off the St. Henry at-bat with a single. A sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second and a dropped strike three allowed Caden Bergman to reach first and Kunkler to run to third. Bryce Brookhart's fly to center was deep enough to score Kunkler.

St. Marys came back with the equalizer in the bottom of the inning. Tanner Howell led off with a single, went to second on a wild pitch and stole third. One out later, Drew Dammeyer singled to center to score Howell for the tying run.

Kunkler drew a walk to start the 11th for the Redskins, but Dieringer retired the next three batters of the order. In the bottom of the 11th, Boos singled to right and took second on a balk. Craft followed with a single down the left field line, allowing Boos to score easily and ending the game.

"We should have got the job done sooner," said Fitzgerald. "It was nice to see us come out on top."

Both teams are back in action on Wednesday. St. Marys hosts Parkway while St. Henry travels south to face Versailles.