Miscue issues

FORT RECOVERY — The Indians have gotten better.
But they still need to cut down on their mistakes to turn that improvement into victories.
Fort Recovery committed six errors and gave up nine walks Tuesday as it fell 9-6 to the Lincolnview Lancers to fall to 0-2.
The Tribe, which lost 8-0 Monday to Celina, also dropped its first two games last season, but by wider margins. In 2011, it fell 12-0 to Celina and 14-2 to Lincolnview with both losses coming in five innings.
“They had nine runs,” said FRHS coach Jerry Kaup of Tuesday’s defeat. “Seven were off of walks and one was an error. So we’ve got to clean up our mistakes a little bit.”
Two walks and three errors by the Indians helped lead to most of Celina’s scoring Monday. Six of the Bulldog runs came with two outs while Fort Recovery had three runners thrown out between third base and home plate.
“We’ve had opportunities to win both these ball games,” Kaup said. “We just have to clean those things up.”
Mistakes led to a 2-0 lead for Lincolnview (1-0) before the Indians scored their first runs of the season in the third inning.
Elijah Kahlig started the rally with a single to right field, and a pair of bunts — one resulting in a single and another in an error — loaded the bases. Collin O’Dell then pushed the first Tribe run of the year across the plate with a walk.
Blake Boughman, a sophomore transfer from Jay County, pulled the Tribe even with a two-run single to left field, and O’Dell gave his team the lead when he scored on an error by the Lancers.
The lead, however, didn’t last long as Lincolnview responded with five runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to move ahead for good.
“We want to be persistent, apply pressure every inning,” said Lancers coach Brad Mendenhall of the quick comeback. “We did a really nice job of that. And then in the bottom of (the fourth) inning we came back and got three straight outs.”
The Indians pulled to within 7-6 with two more runs in the fifth inning, but Lincolnview again had an immediate response. It scored two runs in the bottom of the sixth inning to regain a three-run lead.
O’Dell led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a single to left field, but the Tribe offense stalled from there. Lancers reliever Kyle Williams struck out Boughman and induced fly outs from Hayden Pottkotter and Jared Kahlig to end the game.
“I want to commend my pitchers for throwing strikes,” said Mendenhall. “And we did a nice job of not swinging at bad pitches.”
Williams struck out two batters as he worked the final two innings for the save. Eli Farmer went the first five innings for Lincolnview, striking out three batters while walking two.
Connor McCleery paced the Lancers from the No. 7 spot in the order as he drove in five runs.
Muhlenkamp had two hits and two RBIs for Fort Recovery, and Boughman also finished with a pair of RBIs. O’Dell had a hit, a run and an RBI, and Ryan Gaerke, Pottkotter, Elijah Kahlig, Alex Thien and Pottkotter each finished with a hit and a run.
Pottkotter took the loss, allowing five runs — three earned — on three hits and six walks. He struck out one batter.
Thien gave up three runs in two innings of relief, and Kahlig struck out two batters as he pitched the final 1 2/3 innings.
“I thought Alex Thien came in and gave me some good innings,” Kaup said. “And I thought Jared Kahlig came in and started to throw the ball with authority. It looked to me like those last couple batters he got in the groove.”



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