Extra effort

GREENVILLE, Ohio — Monday it was patience at the plate that helped the Indians to an extra inning victory.
Friday night it was the Tribe’s aggressiveness that got the win.
Fort Recovery High School’s baseball team racked up 10 stolen bases and executed a perfect squeeze play to help score four runs in the 11th inning to beat the Greenville Green Wave 12-8.
“We finally were able to match up with their pitcher and use some of our speed, be a little more aggressive with the base stealing and small ball,” said FRHS coach Jerry Kaup, whose team lost a two-run lead in the sixth and seventh innings and couldn’t hang on to an 8-6 advantage in the eighth. “This was an interesting game that there were so many ups and downs, ways that we could have won and should have won, ways that we could have lost and should have lost.”
In the top of the 11th inning with the score tied at eight, Kyle Schroer led off for Fort Recovery (4-1) with a walk — his second of the night and sixth in the last two games — and Chase Bruns sacrificed him to second with a bunt. Schroer then swiped third base, and Ross Homan drew a walk to give Fort Recovery runners at the corners.
Will Homan followed with a softly hit ground ball to shortstop Kyle Mills, who threw it past catcher Grant Minnich to allow Schroer to score. Ross Homan also scored as the Green Wave defense had trouble corralling the loose ball — another two-run lead for the Tribe — and Will Homan took second easily.
Like Schroer, Homan timed Brandon Beyke’s move to the plate perfectly to steal second, setting up a squeeze bunt from Cade Wendel.
The sophomore lefty bunted Beyke’s 3-1 offering down the third base line to score Homan, and Tanner Ross overthrew Jason Shields at first to let the Tribe’s leadoff hitter take second.
“I was just thinking get the bunt down,” said Wendel, who along with Jackson Hobbs — he had two doubles and drove in two runs — led the squad with three hits.
A wild pitch let Wendel get to second, and a sacrifice fly off the bat of Ben Homan plated the fourth run of the inning and final tally of the game.
Wendel, who entered the game in relief of Rogers during the eighth inning, gave up a two-out walk in the bottom of the frame but struck out Minnich for a second time to end the game.
“I thought Cade was terrific tonight,” Kaup said. Wendel got the win, allowing two hits, striking out a half dozen with just the one free pass in 3 2/3 innings of relief. “Cade was the hero of the game tonight. Came in and absolutely gave us the confidence we needed.
“When he threw those couple of early innings there we felt very confident we were going to hold them.”
“I just went in and knew I had to throw strikes,” said Wendel, who got his first victory of the season after starting and getting a no decision Monday at Celina. “Let them hit the ball. I have a good defense behind me to back me up.”
In addition to his two walks, Schroer also had two hits, as the Indians and Green Wave (2-2) both finished with a dozen. Jacob Homan started for Fort Recovery, allowing five runs — three earned — on seven hits while also striking out six. He walked two batters.
The Tribe and Greenville went back and forth for the first eight innings. The Indians struck for one run in the first on an RBI single from Ben Homan, but the Green Wave answered with one run in the second before taking a 3-2 lead after three innings.
A two-run double from Hobbs and an RBI single by Boughman put the Tribe ahead 5-3 after the top of the fourth, but an RBI single from Ross Homan cut the Greenville deficit in half.
Ross Homan caught the Green Wave defense napping for a clean steal of home in the fifth for a 6-4 FRHS lead, but one run in each of the sixth and seventh innings by Greenville sent the game into extras.
Jacob Homan sat on a curveball from Greenville pitcher Tyler Netzley I the eighth inning for an RBI double as the Indians put up two runs in the top of the frame, but the hosts answered back with a pair in the bottom half to keep the game going.
“In these kinds of games when you’re playing a quality opponent and you’re not playing the best baseball you have to figure out or find a way to win it,” said Kaup, whose team hosts Lima Shawnee for a doubleheader at noon today. “We were able to get by with that tonight.”