The road for Recovery

Teams don’t get to the state finals without a long and taxing journey.
Whether a team goes undefeated or gets hot for the postseason, no path is classified as “easy.”
Fort Recovery High School’s baseball team has had a tough road. It included a winning streak that broke school records. It saw the run get snapped. The Tribe even lost back-to-back games — twice.
The Indians were in position to win the program’s first Midwest Athletic Conference championship.
But as that slipped away with a loss to eventual MAC champion St. Henry, the Tribe turned its focus to bigger things.
And here it is — two games away from the program’s first state championship and the first title for Fort Recovery in any sport in more than two decades.
Here’s a look back at the Indians’ 25-5 record and how they put themselves in the driver’s seat to a Division IV state championship.

The streak
In the past, some Fort Recovery teams dreamed of winning 17 games in a season — maybe even multiple seasons.
The Tribe began 2015 with 17 straight wins.
“The winning streak was a kind of a pleasant surprise,” said FRHS coach Jerry Kaup. He and the Indians were a month into the season before suffering their first loss. “To win 17 games in a row you have to use the whole team. You can’t rely on one guy. That is when we realized we had a team that was going to fit together well.
During that time, Fort Recovery surpassed two records — the most wins to begin a season (previous was 11) and the longest winning streak in program history (old record was 13).
Perhaps the biggest of those 17 wins was April 28 on the road against Coldwater.
The Indians knocked off the defending Division III state champion 3-2, marking the Tribe’s first win against the Cavaliers since 1981.

The loss
Fort Recovery’s winning streak came to a halt with a 7-3 home defeat to Minster, the third straight loss to the Wildcats.
“We knew we were human after that,” said junior left fielder Kyle Schroer. “I think we needed it. It was sort of a wake-up call that we are beatable.”
Minster jumped on the Tribe for seven runs before the Indians scratched across three late runs.
The Indians even had the potential tying run at the plate, but couldn’t eliminate the deficit.
Three days earlier the Indians beat Coldwater, and Kaup said the Tribe just didn’t have the same energy it did against the Cavs.
“I don’t want to say we had a letdown,” he said, “but I don’t think our emotional batteries were as charged as they were earlier in the week.”

The MAC
The Indians entered its May 8 matchup with St. Henry boasting a 19-3 record and a 7-1 mark in the Midwest Athletic Conference.
The Redskins had an identical conference record, so a victory in this game would likely secure a MAC title.
A pair of unearned runs in the third inning gave the visiting Redskins an early 2-0 lead, and eventual Division III All-Ohio and All-MAC first team pitcher Ryan Mikesell shut the door on the Indians’ offense.
Fort Recovery’s chance at the program’s first MAC championship slipped away.
“We were disappointed because of the fact we knew we weren’t going to win the league,” Kaup said. “We were not despondent because we know it’s a very difficult league.”
Schroer was more candid.
“We knew we were going up against a good team and a good pitcher,” he said. “I feel like we sort of choked.”
Failing to win the MAC did not mean the Indians’ season was over. As senior Mitch Stammen mentioned, “It means we have something else to work for. We had a chance for a state championship.
“Since we can’t get the MAC championship, we’re going to get a state championship.
And so began the road to Columbus.

The postseason
First was a 12-0 thumping of Waynesfield-Goshen in the sectional championship, the second consecutive title for the Indians.
Next was the district semifinal against Marion Local, which Fort Recovery beat easily in the regular season. A 4-0 win in Coldwater gave the Tribe a rematch with Minster for the district title.
Minster got a 2-0 lead in the first inning, the only runs it would get. Fort Recovery responded with seven consecutive runs for a 7-2 win and the first district title in six decades.
Thursday’s regional semifinal in Springfield, Ohio, was a rematch of an April 13 tilt against Lehman Catholic. The Tribe won the regular season game 5-1, and spotted the Cavaliers one more run at regional for a 5-2 victory behind stellar pitching from Jackson Hobbs.
The following day, Fort Recovery led Cincinnati Country Day by three runs — twice — only to see it vanish both times. The Tribe trailed by two in the sixth, but answered with four runs to win in thrilling fashion, 11-9.
“That was probably our best cluster of four games we’ve ever played as a team,” Stammen said.
“The game against Cincinnati Country Day was a dogfight,” Kaup said. “That was a free-for-all dogfight.”
It put the second-ranked Indians two games away from the school’s fifth state championship, regardless sport.

The finals
Two more wins.
How do the Indians get two more wins?
“We just have to play like we have all season,” said Stammen, who answered almost word-for-word the same way as Schroer. “Don’t stress out, stay laid back and see what we can do.”
Schroer offered slightly more insight.
“We shouldn’t just freak out because we’re going to Columbus and a big stadium for the first time,” he said. “We’re going to see quality competition again, against a team that has been here.”
Newark Catholic. The Green Wave. They’re 20-11, but like Schroer said, they’ve been to the state finals before.
The ninth-ranked Green Wave won the state championship in 2013, the seventh in school history and second all-time in Ohio.
Oh, and they knocked off top-ranked Hiland in the regional final this season.
“They’re going to play a full seven innings and a full 21 outs,” Kaup said. “If the game is close, they feel more and more confident in their abilities to come out ahead.”
The Tribe has success when the score is close, too. It is 7-3 this year in games decided by fewer than three runs, and is 5-2 in one-run games.
And with Hobbs, a Division IV all-Ohio honorable mention pitcher, on the mound Thursday, the Indians have a shot.
Awaiting them on Saturday in the state championship will be either Hicksville (19-10) or Berlin Center Western Reserve (22-5).

Should the Indians advance to Saturday’s final — first pitch is slated for 1 p.m. — they will have been battle tested.
Their postseason run to the title includes six teams ranked No. 11 or higher. Out of the other eight regional qualifying teams in the bracket opposite Fort Recovery, only three are ranked.
None of them remain.
The Tribe has clawed and scratched its way to the state finals.
With 25 wins already, another two seem possible.