FRHS blasts Patriots

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians were thrilled to be playing on their home field for the first time this season. For the Patriots, the trip to Ohio to play their season opener was not so enjoyable.
Fort Recovery, playing its first home game after six on the road to start the year, had its best defensive outing of the season as it defeated Jay County 10-0 in five innings.
“It was great to be home,” said FRHS coach Marie Osterholt, whose team improved to 3-4. “I thought our defense played great. If you want to win a game, you can't have errors. And they played perfect defense tonight … and we came away with a great win.”
It was a rough opening game for Jay County, which had four players making their first varsity start. The Patriots dropped their first five games last year, but came on strong in the second half of the season.
“We probably had a lot of pre-game jitters,” said JCHS coach Doug Arbuckle. “There were a lot of new faces out there. The girls were a little anxious at the plate. I thought we settled down a little bit and hit a couple of good, hard balls, but we had some opportunities with runners in scoring position and we couldn’t come up with a big hit. It’s just going to take us a little bit of time for us to gel together.
“(The Indians) played a good ball game. They hit the ball hard. And when they had runners in scoring position they put the ball in play and made things happen.”
While Fort Recovery delivered some big hits to score three runs in the third inning and seven in the fourth, it was the defense that stood out.
After committing 10 errors Saturday to drop both games of a double-header to National Trail, the Tribe was perfect in the field against Jay County. Fort Recovery sat down the Patriots in order in the first two innings, third baseman Kendra Brunswick made a diving catch to leave the bases loaded in the third and pitcher Andi Sutter induced three straight infield outs in the fourth after the first two JCHS batters reached base.
With the defense standing strong, senior Shelby Brunswick broke open the game at the plate for the Indians. She smacked a triple to center field to score Beca Tobe and Olivia Thien in the third inning, and then scored on a passed ball.
“That was a fantastic hit,” said Osterholt. “It was like it just woke everybody up. … She just got the rally going.”
Janelle Schwieterman hit a one-hopper off the fence for a double to lead off the fourth inning, and Taylor Guggenbiller followed with a double of her own to right-center. Stacy Gehle and Tobe added back-to-back singles, and the Tribe went on to draw four walks as they sent 13 batters to the plate.
Shelby Brunswick finished with two runs and two RBIs, and Thien and Tobe each scored a pair of runs.
“The whole lineup has been hitting,” said Osterholt, who got hits from six different players. “It’s great to see. And they’re hitting the ball hard. … They know they can hit and they do it.
“They’ve been doing a great job of … being patient, laying off the high ones and hitting in their zone.”
Nikka Chaney, Lexie Gierhart and Katie Aker had the only hits for Jay County. Aker, a freshman, also had an outfield assist to second base after an errant throw to first.
“I thought Katie did a good job out there,” said Arbuckle. “She’s got a real strong arm … And she was in the right position backing up first base and made a nice throw.”[[In-content Ad]]