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St. Henry's Drew Langenkamp slides safely back to the bag as Celina first baseman Mason Feister applies the tag on a pickoff attempt in a Mercer County ACME sectional game at the Wally Post Athletic Complex on Thursday.
ST. HENRY - St. Henry survived an early burst from Celina to win the first game 11-5 and Fort Recovery run-ruled Parkway 16-1 in five innings Thursday as the Redskins and Indians moved into the winner's bracket of the Mercer County ACME baseball sectional tournament.
Coldwater and St. Henry will face off at 5 p.m. tonight at the Wally Post Athletic Complex, followed by Fort Recovery and Marion Local. Celina and Parkway will play in the first game of the loser's bracket at Fort Recovery on Saturday morning.
The Bulldogs racked up five runs before the Redskins came to bat, but it didn't take long for the counterpunch.
St. Henry got six hits and six runs in the bottom half, and it kept adding on to win the opener.
"After the top of the first, we looked pretty good," St. Henry coach Tyler Bruns said. "I was proud of our team. We didn't get down on ourselves. It was a tough first inning - we struggled with command a little bit, hit three or four batters with walks in there."
Redskins starter Jared Nietfeld hit two of the first three batters with pitches, and Chance Miller hit a ground ball to the right side fielded by first baseman Jacob Schwieterman. Schwieterman looked to second, threw back to Nietfeld running to cover first, and sailed the ball into foul territory to score the first run.
Cohen Harter singled in a run, Austin Siefring followed with a single to load the bases, and Nietfeld hit Reece Pottkotter with a pitch to force in a run. Brenner Hinkle beat out a near double play to make it 4-0 and Mason Feister singled in Siefring to cap the scoring.
But the first four batters for St. Henry singled against Siefring, and David Clune made it 5-3 with an RBI groundout. Jack Kaiser grounded up the middle for a single to cut the deficit to one and Tate Boeckman doubled down the right field line to tie the game, then scored on a balk to make it 6-5 and chase Siefring.
"Trying to go after the first pitch if it was there, and our two-strike hitting was pretty decent today as well," Bruns said. "Just put them out there and hope the defense makes a mistake, or the ball gets down."
David Clune came out of the bullpen for St. Henry, and his first pitch hit Braylon Steinbrunner on the cheekbone. Luke Maxwell singled, but Clune struck out the next two batters and got Siefring to ground out to short to end the threat.
Clune set the side down in order in the third before turning the ball over to Jack Buschur, who retired the first eight batters he faced.
St. Henry pitcher Jack Buschur throws to first base on a ground ball in the fourth inning.
"First inning, they hit a few kids," Celina coach Derek Harter said. "They gave us the opportunity to move the ball around a little bit, and we did. Then they changed pitchers up - a lot fewer fastballs, and we weren't hitting the off-speed stuff."
Meanwhile, the Redskins kept adding on. Clune had another RBI groundout in the second and Kaiser hit an RBI single in the fourth.
In the fifth, Buschur led off with a single and scored on a wild pitch. Carter LaGuire doubled and Drew Langenkamp walked, and both scored on Schwieterman's two-run single.
Siefring came back in for the sixth, and after giving up a leadoff single, he struck out Boeckman and Buschur and got Michael Gonzalez to fly out.
"I think it was just him settling in," Harter said. "Austin's a good pitcher, he throws strikes. It turned into a pitcher conservation thing for us: we've got a game Saturday, let's try to keep some guys under pitch limits and be able to come back Saturday and compete."
St. Henry's defense helped keep Celina in check. Gonzalez ran down a fly ball in right-center in the first inning, Carter LaGuire displayed an impressive vertical leap to catch a line drive in the third, and Clune made a tough stop and spun for the throw from third in the fifth.
The best came from Nietfeld after he moved to left field. He ended the fourth with a diving grab, laying out toward the foul line to catch a sinking line drive that could've gone for extra bases. In the seventh, he got the second out charging in and diving for a pop fly off the bat of Maxwell.
Buschur pitched the final four innings, allowing just a walk to Mason Feister in the sixth. He struck out four and only threw 37 pitches.
"He's got a really good off-speed and consistently hit the zone there," Bruns said. "That's all we need, with the defensive effort we put up today."
The Indians hit the cover off the ball, made just one error, and got a strong start from Gavin Evers to win their sectional opener.
Fort Recovery put up six runs in the first inning and six more in the second, then tacked on another four in the fourth to put the game away.
"I thought that was the first game all summer that we actually put all three phases of the game together," Fort Recovery coach Tony Grisez said. "Pitching, I don't think Gavin had a walk, unbelievable attacking the zone; our approach to base running and to hitting, all through the lineup; and defensively, we might not have made an error. It was just a very good, well-balanced win."
Fort Recovery shortstop Alex Gaerke throws to first base in the first inning against Parkway.
Austin Siegrist was hit by a pitch to lead off the home first, and he went to second on a wild pitch and to third on a groundout before scoring on Mason Diller's single to left. Alex Gaerke took a four-pitch walk, Luke Fortkamp got a pop fly to fall in front of sliding centerfielder Tyler Miller to score another run, and Gaerke scored on an error at first.
Jacob Foote was hit by a pitch before Dylan Klenke hit a fly ball to the right-center gap for a two-run double to make it 6-0.
In the second, the Indians got going again. Caden Grisez reached on an error and Diller singled before Gaerke hit a two-run double to left-center. Fortkamp singled in Gaerke to chase starter Xavier Samples, then scored on a wild pitch, and Hayden Siefring added an RBI single before scoring on a throwing error as Siegrist stole second.
"They weren't chasing the stuff out of the zone," coach Grisez said. "They were attacking stuff that was given to them, and taking their bases if they gave it to them. They hit the ball hard and forced throws on defense."
Meanwhile, Evers worked around a pair of two-out singles in the first and gave up his only run in the second. Tyler Miller hit a ground-rule double to left field, took off for third on a ball in the dirt, and scored when catcher Brodie Hart's throw went into left field.
Parkway's Tyler Miller dashes home as Fort Recovery third baseman Caden Grisez looks after an errant throw in the second inning.
Evers gave up two more hits to lead off the fourth, but then struck out the next two batters and got a groundout to end the inning.
"He was going up and down, moving it around," coach Grisez said. "He was really keeping them off balance with the breaking ball."
Scott Lennartz led off the fourth with a single for Fort Recovery, and he and Anthony Roessner both reached safely on a fielding error two batters later. Lennartz then scored on a pickoff error, and Siefring doubled down the left field line to score Roessner.
Siegrist hit an RBI single and Grisez added an RBI double to cap the scoring.
Diller and Siefring had two hits apiece. Carson Kirby went 2-for-2 for Parkway.
