Rough first inning dooms Fort Recovery (05/10/04)

MINSTER — There was simply no recovery for the Fort baseball after a disastrous first inning.

The Indians allowed six first-inning runs to the top-seeded host Wildcats Saturday on the way to a 10-0, 5-inning loss in the sectional championship game to Minster.

C.J. Tobe simply could not throw strikes to start the game, and the Tribe offense never got anything going to help dig out of the massive hole.

Tobe walked the leadoff hitter — Ty Parks — on four straight pitches, and never found any kind of control. He then allowed a single to right by Jon Kaylor and a sacrifice fly to Tim Cordonnier.

Fort Recovery tried to cut down the rally on Scott Sherman’s ground ball to third baseman Dan Heitkamp. Catcher Greg Faller called for the ball at home to try to get Kaylor, but the throw was late and the rally continued.

Bob Inskeep walked, and Wes Sherman slammed an RBI double down the left field line to knock Tobe out of the game.

Tobe tossed 21 pitches, only three of which actually reached Faller as strikes. He threw seven total strikes, but two went for hits, one for a fielder’s choice and another for a sacrifice fly.

Nick Wehrkamp took over with just one out in the first inning and started off slow. He threw three straight balls to Josh Boeke before giving him an intentional pass.

Wehrkamp finally recorded the second out of the inning on a ground ball by Scott Kuehner, but Jake Luttmer and Parks them knocked him for back-to-back hits. In all the Wildcats (15-7) sent 11 batters to the plate and scored six times on fours hits and three walks.

“C.J. Tobe just wasn’t ready to go today,” said Fort Recovery coach Aaron Vaughn, whose team lost in its first trip to the sectional championship game since winning the title in 2001. “The first inning we got down 6-0. They’re just a better team than us right now.”

Wehrkamp tossed a scoreless second and third inning before Minster caught up to him with three hits in the fourth. He walked Scott Sherman to start the inning, and Inskeep put down a sacrifice bunt.

Wes Sherman and Boeke then dropped back-to-back doubles, the first to the gap in right-center field and the second to the gap in left-center. After a ground out by Kuehner, Luttmer drove in his third run of the game with a two-out single to center.

Scott Sherman ended the game in the fifth with an RBI single to score Cordonnier.

“Hitting the baseball the thing we wanted to try to do was put the ball in play hard,” said Minster coach Mike Wiss.

They did that, with three hitters having perfect days at the plate.

Luttmer finished 2--for-2 with a walk and three RBIs. Wes Sherman was 2-for-2 with two doubles, a walk, two runs and two RBIs, and Inskeep went 1-for-1 with a walk, a sacrifice and a run.

Parks also had two hits, and Scott Sherman had one hit, two runs and two RBIs.

The Indians (7-12) looked like the might have a chance to repeat their effort from a week earlier in the sectional first round against New Knoxville when they scored on a pair of two-out rallies.

Greg Faller took a two-out walk and stole second in the first innings. But, Dusty Guggenbiller struck out and by the time the Tribe came to the plate again its was facing the giant deficit.

Fort Recovery got just two hits in the game — a double by Tobe and an infield single by Guggenbiller — and hit just two balls out of the infield.

Scott Sherman (5-1) recorded seven strikeouts and issued five walks in the shutout win.

“I was really pleased with how Scott threw the ball,” said Wiss. “There were some people who we wanted to make sure did not have some hitters on base in front of them.”

The Wildcats advance to take on Marion Local in the district semifinal round Monday, May 17 at Minster at 5 p.m. Marion Local advanced with a win over New Bremen, thanks mostly to a 17-strikeout effort by star pitcher Cory Luebke.

Fort Recovery will return to its regular-season schedule to take on host the Ansonia Tigers today at 5 p.m.[[In-content Ad]]