(Post)er moment

HOUSTON, Ohio — The Indians had an opportunity to take the lead in the bottom of the fifth inning, but hesitation by Austin Siegrist squandered it.

Four innings later, with one out and Siegrist on second base, another ball was hit into the air. He again took a look at the outfield to judge if it had a chance to find the ground. When he determined it did, he turned and took off with the determination to right the wrong of the earlier inning.

Once he crossed the plate, he got up to join the rest of the Indians as they sprinted out to meet Colson Post at second base.

The second-seeded Fort Recovery High School baseball team walked off the No. 6 seed Legacy Christian Knights in the ninth inning with a double off of Post’s bat to claim its second consecutive district title in the OHSAA Division VI  Southwest 3 District Championship game at Houston on Friday.

The win advanced Fort Recovery (17-8) to the Regional opener on Tuesday at 2 p.m. against the winner of No. 1 seed Summit Country Day and fifth-seeded Covington at Newton Local.

“That’s awesome,” said FRHS coach Kevin Eyink. “I mean, that’s what you play for. That’s fun to be in a competitive game and then come down to the wire and have somebody come through and win it.”

Neither team ever held a lead greater than one run, and they spent five of the nine innings tied including the sixth, seventh and eighth frames.

The Tribe held Legacy Christian (14-8) with the tie in the top half of the ninth as Caden Grisez – he earned the win in relief with no runs on one hit and four strikeouts through 3.1 innings pitched –with a pair of strikeouts and a flyout to first baseman Caden Homan. The Indians broke that tie in the bottom half of the inning.

Gavin Evers led off the inning with a sharp ground ball that Justin Harphant had to range over for and fire to first for the out.

Siegrist watched four straight balls to walk his way to first base and stole second early in Post’s at bat. 

Post hadn’t done a ton with the bat earlier in the game – the No. 9 hitter struck out in his first appearance, laid down a sacrifice bunt in the fifth inning and flew out to left field in the seventh – but got ahead 2-1 with the winning run standing on second base.

He then got the exact pitch he wanted, a high fast ball, and blasted the ball to the fence.

“I just wanted a base hit,” Post said. “It’s not like I was looking to win the game, I just wanted to get (Siegrist) advanced to third base to give Reece (Wendel) a chance to knock him in. … I love higher pitches. My and Alex (Gaerke)  were working on the tee and he was telling me where the spot was that my hands would meet and just to go straight on and that’s what worked.”

As the ball started to sail towards the gap in right-center field, Siegrist hesitated; something that cost him the opportunity to score the go-ahead run in the fifth inning on a lineout by Wendel to center field. This time around, he was quicker to evaluate the likelihood of the ball being caught, and turned to make a break for third base and then home plate.

“For a second I went back to second in case he caught it,” Siegrist said. “When I’d seen it was getting down I just hauled (it). … I was excited thinking we’d win the game.”

Just as Siegrist slid across the base, the rest of the Indians poured out of the dugout to meet Post in the grass by second base to celebrate winning their second district championship in as many years.

“It was unbelievable,” Post said of the feeling after walking off the game.

Neither of the team’s first runs were earned. FRHS struck in the bottom of the first inning after Wendel walked and then made his way around to third base on an error by second baseman David Cancino on an attempt to steal second. Grisez followed up with a groundout that plated Wendel.

The Knights got their first run in the fifth inning. Gaerke, the starting pitcher, hit the first two batters of the frame, but came right back with a strikeout. A fielder’s choice eliminated the lead runner at third base for the second out.

The Indians finally slipped up as Grisez threw away a groundball, allowing John Augustine to score from second base. (Homan committed a second error on the plate that let Adriel Angel reach second base.)

Outside of the single slip up, the Indians’ defense made multiple key plays to bolster the efforts of Gaerke and Grisez on the mound that include Mason Diller charging a ball in right field and firing home to save a run, Diller sliding to catch a shallow fly ball, the fielder’s choice in the fifth inning by Post at shortstop, a clean 5-4-3 double play, a 5-4 fielder’s choice that turned into a double play on interference and multiple saves by Homan at first base.

With the defense clicking and the two pitchers giving up a combined two hits and six walks, the Tribe silenced the Liberty Christian offense that averaged 6.6 runs on the year.

“The defense was great,” Eyink said. “All around great defense all night. There was the one error, the throwing error that got the run home but otherwise they made the right decisions and that’s the reason we were able to win that game, especially being a tight game like that.”

The Tribe made a run to state for the third time in school history last year. Now only two games stand between the Indians and Akron.