The Tribe stands alone (05/13/05)

VERSAILLES, Ohio — Being a good team is enough to win most conference championships. But that doesn’t cut it in the Midwest Athletic Conference.

Only great teams win MAC titles, making Fort Recovery’s accomplishment that much more special.

With a little help from Coldwater and a 7-3 victory over the Versailles Tigers powered by a Renee Evers home run Thursday the Indians captured their first outright MAC softball crown in school history.

“It’s great,” said FRHS coach Marie Osterholt after the win over Versailles, but before she learned her team had taken the outright title. “Everyone on this team contributed. It’s just a great win, great for the girls. They battled hard.”

Coldwater allowed the Indians to stand alone atop the MAC by handing the Parkway Panthers a 4-1 defeat Thursday. Parkway opened 5-0 in conference play only to lose its last two, including a 3-0 defeat at the hands of the Tribe Monday.

Had the Panthers defeated Coldwater they would have shared the MAC crown with Fort Recovery despite the result of the head-to-head match-up. The Indians finished in a three-way tie for the MAC title last year.

“The girls worked hard,” said Osterholt, whose team opened 3-7 but has now won 10 in a row. “We struggled in the beginning and they got it in their minds that they wanted to finish strong. We just want to keep on going.”

Fort Recovery, which won its second straight sectional title Wednesday, will get the chance to keep playing Tuesday when it plays the host New Bremen Cardinals in the district semifinal round at 5 p.m. The MAC has sent teams to the state final four in each of the last two seasons with Marion Local reaching the semifinal round last year and St. Henry finishing as the runner-up in 2003.

The Indians led all the way against Versailles (14-9) after scoring twice in the top of the first inning. They were up 4-1 in the sixth when Evers put them over the top.

The junior had struggled in her two previous at bats, hitting fly-ball outs to second base and shortstop. But that all changed after a short chat with Osterholt in between innings.

Evers came to the plate with Megan Wenning and Ciera Rammel on base and one out in the sixth and pounded Tiger pitcher Amber Voisard. When she hit the ball not only did it not stay in the infield, there was no chance it would stay in the park.

Left fielder Susan Brown took a few steps, but could do nothing but watch the ball fly over the fence for a three-run homer.

“She was so tense up there,” said Osterholt of Evers’ earlier at bats. “I just told her ‘Relax and have some fun.’ She just shook it off. Renee’s got to relax when she’s up to bat, and she did and it was wonderful.”

Wenning also came up big as she finished 2-for-2. She had an RBI single in the fourth inning, scored on Evers’ home run and stole a base.

Rammel had a hit, two runs and an RBI, and Kelsie Will singled and scored once.

The Indians also got a solid pitching effort from the combination of Tiff Gaerke and Alyssa Tobe.

Gaerke gave up just a single run before departing after Versailles loaded the bases thanks to two errors and an infield single with one out in the fifth inning.

Tobe entered the game and promptly struck out Brown and Rachel Schmitz to end the threat.

“When you get runners to third place you’ve got to put the ball in play,” said coach Ron Mescher after his Tigers left nine runners on base, including five in scoring position. “You’ve got to put the ball in play, that’s all there is to it. That was the big inning. You need to put the ball in play somehow, somewhere and we struck out twice ...”

Gaerke earned the win by giving up one run on four hits in 41/3 innings. Tobe retired the first seven batters she faced before giving up a pair of runs in the seventh.

Chelsea Mayer suffered the loss by giving up four runs — three earned — on two hits. She walked four batters, including three in the first inning.[[In-content Ad]]