Friday, June 10th, 2022
Hits hard to find
Coldwater defeats Celina in pitchers duel
By Tom Haines
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Coldwater's Baylen Blockberger tries to outrun Celina shortstop Blayn Aller in a footrace to third in the fifth inning at Veteran's Field on Friday. Aller made a sliding tag to complete the fielder's choice for the second out of the inning.
COLDWATER - With only two hits on the night, Coldwater needed to find a way to scratch across some runs to back up Justin Kaup.
In the third inning, they found just enough to get it done.
Two wild pitches and a sacrifice fly gave the Cavaliers a two-run lead, and that proved to be enough as Kaup shut down Celina for an efficient 3-1 ACME baseball win in just 75 minutes at Veterans Field on Thursday.
"You can tell by the time, it didn't take very long. Both pitchers threw strikes," Celina coach Tim Harter said. "They capitalized on a couple opportunities that we didn't, and that's pretty much the ballgame, really. Typical Celina-Coldwater game, whoever blinks or makes the first mistake, the other takes advantage of it."
The Bulldogs and Cavaliers traded unearned runs in the first two innings before Cole Etzler, who got a second chance after a dropped foul ball earlier in the at-bat, hit a slow grounder to second base and reached without a throw for Coldwater's second - and ultimately last - hit of the day. He stole second before AJ Harlamert flew out to center, and Celina starter Caleb Stephenson hit Braylen Harlamert on the forearm to put runners on first and second.
With Keegan Bruggeman at the plate, Stephenson spiked a pitch in the dirt and the two runners alertly moved up. Later in the at-bat, another low pitch went through catcher Carter Altstaetter's legs that allowed Etzler to come home.
"He threw them in the dirt, but you've got to kind of trust your catchers too on that sort of stuff," Harter said. "I can't totally blame Caleb for that."
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Celina pitcher Caleb Stephenson fields a sacrifice bunt by Coldwater's Justin Kaup in the second inning at Veterans Field on Thursday.
Bruggeman followed up with a fly ball to left-center deep enough for Braylen Harlamert to tag up and give Coldwater (3-1) an insurance run before Stephenson got out of the inning without further damage.
Over the next three innings, Stephenson, in his second outing of the summer, only allowed two runners to reach, walking one and allowing another to reach on a fielder's choice before picking him off first.
"When you don't get that many baserunners, you've got to use the ones you have, they're at a premium," Coldwater coach Tom Brunswick said. "I thought we ran the bases pretty well to get ourselves in scoring position. The one time they had the ball in the dirt and both kids moved up, that was big.
"We scratched out three runs and held them to one, it's a win, and that's a pretty good ballclub."
Photo by Paige Sutter/The Daily Standard
Coldwater pitcher Justin Kaup delivers to the plate in the first inning against Celina at Veterans Field on Thursday.
At the same time, Kaup was cruising through the Bulldogs' lineup. After Celina (5-1) went up 1-0 in the top of the first, Kaup retired 13 straight batters, until Wes Greber snapped the streak with a chopper that snuck through the right side to lead off the sixth.
Baylen Blockberger turned a 6-4-3 double play to erase the runner, and after Blayn Aller hit a grounder just inside the third base line, Kaup induced a lazy flyout to right to strand him at first.
"Some of these kids haven't played a whole lot over here in Coldwater, but you learn real quick, you really can't beat ground balls through the infield here," Harter said. "They have some really nice infielders that really capitalize on some ground balls. Their infield is probably one of the better infields that I've seen, they're pretty smooth."
Kaup then set down the side in order in the seventh, striking out two, with Dale Secrest caught swinging at strike three to end the game.
"Very few three-ball counts, and he was ahead of most hitters," Brunswick said. "He just threw strikes and used his defense, and we played very good defense tonight."
The Bulldogs got on the board in the first after Zach Greber hit a fly ball to centerfield over the head of Etzler, who was playing close to the infield. After Aller executed a sacrifice bunt, a high-bouncing grounder up the first base line gave the Cavaliers the second out without allowing the run to score.
Altstaetter hit a routine grounder to short, but the ball went through Blockberger's legs as the first run scored.
"Early in the game, we're going to make them hit one over our head, and to their credit they did," Brunswick said. "They hit one over our head, so we had to play a little bit deeper, especially with the top of the order. But after that we played really good defense, turned a big double play in the sixth."
The Cavaliers evened it up in the second after Evan Harlamert hit a drive to the hill in left-center for a leadoff double and moved to third on Kaup's sacrifice bunt. After falling behind 0-2 and then fouling off five straight pitches, Curtis Duerr hit a grounder to third and Secrest charged the ball with a chance to throw Harlamert out at the plate, but he fumbled the exchange from his glove and Harlamert dove in safely to knot the score at 1.
"Two hits, that's not real good, but our situational hitting was pretty good," Brunswick said. "Keegan did a nice job of hitting that fly ball with one out for the sacrifice fly, and Curtis Duerr did a nice job of hitting a tapper down to third after being down two strikes and fouling off several pitches."
Celina gets a chance to get back in the win column today with a trip to Van Wert, Coldwater travels to Defiance on Saturday for a matinee doubleheader.
