Bunt from the brink

SPRINGFIELD, Ohio — The stands at Carleton Davidson Stadium were packed with purple.
Fort Recovery’s fans didn’t want to miss the chance to witness something special.
They had cheered, yelled, screamed — both in approval and dismay — and even buried their heads in their hands for the previous two hours.
This game had it all. The emotional highs were high, and the lows sometimes seemed like the world was about to end.
Fort Recovery was on the brink of elimination. Trailing 9-7 with six outs remaining, the Indians returned to what got them to the Division IV regional championship game in the first place.
A well-placed bunt.
Ben Will’s squeeze bunt tied the game in the bottom of the sixth inning, and he later scored on a double steal for the go-ahead run as the Fort Recovery High School baseball team (25-5) pushed across four runs in the frame for a come-from-behind 11-9 regional championship victory against Cincinnati Country Day at Wittenberg University.
“We had to do a little small ball again today,” said FRHS coach Jerry Kaup, whose team scored the go-ahead run with a squeeze bunt on Thursday against Lehman Catholic  in the regional semifinal. “We are only going to get so many opportunities.”
The Tribe advances to the state tournament against Newark Catholic at 4 p.m. Thursday at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio. Hicksville meets Berlin Central Western Reserve in the other state semifinal at 7 p.m., with the state championship slated for 1 p.m. June 6.
Will, who also had a single as part of a three-run third inning, had a difficult time coming up with the words to describe his feeling as he stood at the plate with the tying run 90 feet away.
“I didn’t know what to think,” he said. “If I get (the bunt) down, I get it down. I was just hoping for the best.”
His thoughts when Kyle Schroer scored ahead of the throw from CCD pitcher Cameron Alldred?
“I was ready to run over and hug him,” he said.
He would get his chance.
Two batters later, Will was standing on third base with two outs. Mitch Stammen was on first, and he broke for second to entice a throw from Alldred.

Stammen got caught in a rundown long enough to let Will score, and he eventually made it to second safely ahead of the tag.
It was his second stolen base of the game, and the 29th of the season, breaking the school record of 27 he set last season.
Cole Wendel got hit with a pitch, and Jackson Hobbs hit Alldred’s full-count pitch through the left side to allow Stammen to score standing up.
Stammen clapped his hands, jogged to the dugout as the Fort Recovery fans celebrated the seventh and final lead change of the game.
But it the victory celebration had to wait.
Country Day (26-5), which is also nicknamed the Indians, had three outs remaining with the 7-8-9 positions due up. Domenick Doane, the visiting Indians’ No. 7 hitter, was already 3-for-3 with two triples and four RBIs.
Hobbs got Doane to strike out swinging before Greg Foster reached on an error, and AJ Rowe grounded out to Lochtefeld at third base for the second out. Then Cam Davis hit the second pitch of his at bat to Derek Backs at second base. And the senior tossed it to Wendel at first, securing a place in history for Fort Recovery.
“If you would have told me we would win 11 to 9 in this kind of ball game,” said Hobbs, pausing to find the words to finish his thought. “So many ups and downs, I should say. We ended up pulling it out.
“It’s an awesome feeling right now.”
It is a feeling Fort Recovery almost didn’t get to experience.
“Two weeks ago when we lost three in a row, there wasn’t much energy,” said Hobbs, who tied the school record for wins in a season with 11. “Today, the feeling is surreal.”
Friday night, Fort Recovery scored quickly with three runs in the first inning on an error and RBIs from Backs and Homan. But just as fast as they got a three-run lead, the visitors evened it up with three in the top of the second to pull even.
Fort Recovery scored three runs again in the second inning on an RBI single from Wendel and a two-run single by Homan, who was 3-for-3 with three runs driven in.
Once again, the lead vanished. And in the blink of an eye, Country Day was on top, 7-6. Austin Richey’s sacrifice fly made it 6-4 Fort Recovery, and three batters later Doane hit a bases-clearing triple off FRHS freshman Cade Wendel.
It was one of those head-in-the-hands moments for the Fort Recovery faithful.
The lead slipped away.
“That was pretty good the way we came back,” said CCD coach Tim Dunn. “We have been resilient the way we have come back all year.”
Locthefeld tied the game at seven in the fourth, only to have Country Day take a 9-7 advantage on a two-run single from Ronnie Allen in the sixth.
“I wasn’t very happy with myself because I left too good of a pitch over the plate,” said Hobbs, who was on the mound when Allen gave his team the lead. “My teammates backed me up, we got four runs and it is what it is.”
Hobbs and his teammates got more than four runs.
They booked a trip to Columbus.
And they’re two wins away from the program’s first state championship.
“It’s an honor,” said Kaup. “I’m thrilled for the boys … There was so much that we did as a team. I can’t put it into words. I know Jackson was fabulous, I know Mitch was fabulous, but I could go right down the line. I can name every single player.
“We all get to be a hero at different times.”
Friday night, they were all heroes. Every single one of them.