Cardinals down FR (05/20/06)

MINSTER — Fort Recovery and New Bremen had already played two innings Wednesday. But its still took seven more to get a winner.

Kevin Schoenherr and Brad Wendel continued their pitchers’ dual Friday night, with Wendel and his Cardinals finally taking a 4-3, nine-inning district semifinal win thanks to a couple of balls to the backstop in the final frame.

“It was a great high school game,” said New Bremen coach Justin Firks, whose team advances to today’s Division III district title game against Delphos St. John’s at Coldwater at 1 p.m. “Both pitchers threw fantastic. Both teams for the most part made the routine plays. Unfortunately a wild pitch was the deciding factor, but that was a great game.”

After New Bremen (8-12) tied the game at three in the fourth inning, both pitchers settled in. They combined to strand 19 runners on base, pushing their respective teams to extra innings.

Schoenherr faced the minimum of 12 batters in the fifth through eighth innings, but designated hitter Anthony Moeder hit a lead-off single to start the dramatic ninth. Derek Bruggeman moved pinch-runner Adam Meier to second with a sacrifice bunt.

Schoenherr got a fly ball from Cory Jutte for the second out of the inning before FRHS coach Aaron Vaughn made his move. With his starter over 100 pitches and Clint Tobe having had previous success against New Bremen No. 1 hitter Brian Garman, Vaughn made the switch.

One wild pitch moved Moeder, who had re-entered the game for Meier, to third base. A second wild pitch brought him to the plate with the lead run.

“We talk about little things all year, (they) win games,” said Vaughn as three of the four Cardinal runs were unearned. “That can’t happen in big games, especially close games.

“I’m proud of my guys. They played hard. We’ve just got to get better every year. This is a stepping stone. We hadn’t won a sectional in five years ... We’ll keep our heads up and keep working hard and we’ll be back next year.”

Fort Recovery (12-11) had its chance in the bottom of the ninth when senior Chris Galdeen lined a one-out single to center field. But Cardinal catcher Logan O’Neill made a nice grab on a Clint Tobe foul pop-up, and Wendel struck out Schoenherr to end the game.

The Indians had at least one runner on base in every inning. They left 10 on base in all.

Wendel walked four batters, but also struck out eight and had solid defense behind him. He gave up eight hits, but did not allow a batter past second base after the fifth inning.

“Give them credit, Wendel pitched a great game,” said Vaughn. “We couldn’t get a lot of stuff going, but when we did get opportunities we just didn’t get the big clutch hit. Hats off to them, they played a great game. It’s a hard one for anyone to lose.”

Neither team was expected to get even as far as the district semifinals, especially the Cardinals with their record at seven games below .500 going into the tournament. But Fort Recovery upset top seed and host Minster in the sectional championship round, and New Bremen eliminated second-seeded Marion Local.

Now the Cardinals are headed back to the district finale for the second straight season.

“You go into the tournament and you’re 5-12 and you just hope that you can play fundamental baseball,” said Firk. “Thankfully we haven’t made too many mistakes ... the kids responded. I think they get kind of jacked up for tournament games. It’s a brand-new season, brand-new life and we’ve been fortunate so far.”

Garman, Jutte and Scott McCollum led New Bremen in the two-day game with two hits apiece. Garman scored a run and had two stolen bases, Jutte scored once and McCollum added an RBI.

Tony Diller and Curt Heitkamp each had a hit and a run for Fort Recovery, while Steve Trobridge and Toby Metzger turned in a hit and an RBI apiece. Diller had the lone extra-base hit for either team, a double which came in the second inning Wednesday.

Schoenherr took the hard-luck loss, allowing eight hits and two walks in 82/3 innings. He struck out four batters, and only one of the four runs against him was earned.[[In-content Ad]]