Fort crushes South Adams

FORT RECOVERY — The Starfires were in good position after the first inning.
They had a 3-1 lead against one of the top teams in Ohio.
But Fort Recovery High School’s baseball team kept the visitors from Indiana at bay, and capitalized on seven South Adams errors to score 15 straight runs in a 16-3 victory Monday against the Starfires.
“We wanted to be patient and try to make this pitcher throw,” said FRHS coach Jerry Kaup, whose team was voted No. 1 in Division IV in the coaches’ poll released Monday afternoon. “I thought we were aggressive with our swings. Our bats came alive a bit.
“The last couple of games have been tight. We haven’t been able to score as many runs, but we truly have been hitting the ball hard. Those things even out, so it was about due to come around and it did tonight.”
South Adams coach Brad Buckingham said it was his team’s mental toughness that was lacking Monday against the Indians.

“We’ve had two games that we’ve played poorly in and there’s been inclement weather conditions,” said Buckingham, whose team fell to 5-4. “Right now we’re not tough enough to combat that.”
Chase Bruns, who notched his third win of the season on the mound, tied the game in the second inning on a two-run double, scoring Kyle Schroer and Ben Will, both of whom reached on singles.
It was the third inning when the Indians started to pour on the runs, much like Mother Nature had poured down rain early in the game causing a slight delay.
Following a walk by Jackson Hobbs to start the bottom of the third, Jacob Homan hit a long shot down the left field line and the wind carried it foul. The junior transfer from Celina deposited the next pitch over the fence in left field between a light pole and the scoreboard for a two-run home run.
Homan’s first blast of the season — the second of his career — gave the Indians a 5-3 lead.
“I think I’ve been on a slump lately,” said Homan, who also reached on an error in the fourth and scored two runs. “I thought it was going to be a line drive because the wind was blowing in. I was sprinting, and once I got halfway to second everyone was going crazy.”
“I was excited. I’ve hit a few hard ones this year but they haven’t gone out yet. That one finally went out so I was very excited about that.”
Kaup said Homan’s homer was the highlight of the game during which the Indians hardly made any mistakes.
Fort Recovery (13-0), which had every player reach base at least once, scored two more runs that inning on an infield error before putting up nine in the fourth, thanks to five South Adams mishaps.
Hobbs led off the fourth with an infield single and reached third on two stolen bases. Homan reached on an error by Jaden Dull at third, and Derek Backs hit a two run single to make it 9-3 Fort Recovery. Schroer bunted in a run, advanced to third on a throwing error and scored on a double by Nate Lochtefeld.
The Tribe scored six runs in the frame before the Starfires — who used four different pitchers in the inning — recorded an out.
South Adams struggled offensively following its three-run first inning. After a shaky start to the game, Bruns settled down to retire 10 straight batters over the next four innings before giving up back-to-back two-out singles in the fifth. But the FRHS junior got Tyler Sprunger to go down looking — Bruns’ sixth punchout of the game — for the final out.
Bruns allowed three runs (two earned) while scattering four hits and giving up one walk.
Chandler Ingle took the loss for South Adams. He surrendered 10 runs (six earned) on nine hits, striking out two and walking a pair.
“It’s just kind of a gut-check situation,” Buckingham said. “Conditions were the same for both teams. It was windy. It was a little bit cold after the rain. Winners make plays; it doesn’t matter the situation.
“They are a good team. We know that if we play our game we can play with them, and obviously we didn’t tonight.”