Tribe rolls to first MAC win (04/21/06)

FORT RECOVERY — Half of the Indians 12 hits were doubles. And the ones that weren’t may as well have been.

Fort Recovery’s baseball team turned most of its singles into doubles as well, adding six stolen bases in a 10-0, five-inning rout of the New Knoxville Rangers Thursday.

The Indians (7-5, 1-2 Midwest Athletic Conference) also got a lights-out effort from starter Brad Fortkamp in rolling to their first league win.

“I thought we played a really good all-around game,” said FRHS coach Aaron Vaughn. “I just told them in the huddle I was really proud of the way they played.”

After a scoreless first inning the doubles started in the second for Fort Recovery and never stopped.

Troy Metzger opened the second with a double to center field and advanced to third base on a wild pitch. He came home when Toby Metzger ripped a double to left-center two batters later.

An error allowed Clint Tobe on base to start the third inning, and Kevin Schoenherr delivered the first of his two doubles to bring Tobe home. Chris Galdeen followed with an RBI single, then stole second and third bases to set the table to Troy Metzger again.

The junior put together the best at-bat of the game, fouling off pitch after pitch before lacing an RBI single to right field for a 4-0 lead.

“Troy Metzger’s been hitting really well recently,” said Vaughn of his center fielder, who saw double-digit pitches in the at-bat. “You want to just make them work and work. Troy did a great job in that at-bat. He just kept working until he got a hit.”

Fort Recovery added two more runs in the fourth inning with a walk from Bobby Rammel and back-to-back two-out doubles by Tobe and Schoenherr. The Indians then ended the game with a four-run fifth inning, keyed by a two-run double from Tobe and finished off with an RBI single from Schoenherr.

Tobe, the No. 3 hitter, finished 2-for-3 with his pair of doubles, three runs and three RBIs. Schoenherr, the clean-up man, was 3-for-4 with two doubles, three RBIs and a run.

“Kevin Schoenherr really hit the ball hard tonight,” said Vaughn. “Clint, after looking kind of bad on a couple swings, had a couple shots too. I thought we just all-around had a pretty good approach.”

Rammel added two runs and two steals, and Troy Metzger and Curt Heitkamp each had a pair of hits.

New Knoxville (1-9, 0-3 MAC) struggled to get on track offensively.

The Rangers got their first batter on base as Luke Howe struck out, but made it safely to first when catcher Toby Metzger dropped the third strike and then couldn’t find the ball. But Fortkamp was unfazed.

After Metzger redeemed himself by gunning down Howe trying to steal second base, Fortkamp retired the next eight batters in a row. He struck out the side in the second inning and had seven strikeouts in the first three frames en route to 11 for the game.

New Knoxville’s best chance came as it garnered its only two hits in the fourth inning. But it failed to score as Tony Diller and Chris Galdeen turned a 5-4-3 double play.

“We talked a lot about trying to put pressure on our opponents,” said New Knoxville coach Brad Mendenhall. “When you have that many strikeouts and are not putting the ball in play it’s not putting any pressure on.

“We need to play flawless baseball to stay in games. We don’t have the experience, and we don’t have the talent right now to be able to hang in games when we’re not playing well. And this is what happens when we don’t.”

Fortkamp got the win, allowing just one walk to go along with the two hits in five innings.

“Brad just had a different mindset,” said Vaughn. “He went right at hitters. Instead of fooling around with a curve when it wasn’t working he just went right at them. He’s got to have that attitude.”[[In-content Ad]]