Cavaliers spoil historic opportunity

FORT RECOVERY — Jackson Hobbs was hoping to make history.
The Cavaliers made sure he had to wait one more game.
Coldwater, which is ranked third in Division III, jumped on the Fort Recovery High School senior pitcher for four runs in the first inning and added two late insurance runs in a 6-3 victory over the Tribe baseball team on Tuesday.
“Jackson has good stuff and he’s a good pitcher,” said FRHS coach Jerry Kaup, whose team falls to 10-5 on the season and 1-2 in Midwest Athletic Conference play. “We just couldn’t get them out. We couldn’t get the first out.”
Hobbs, who is one win away from setting a new school record for career victories, was on for two pitches, getting ahead of Coldwater leadoff hitter Kyle McKibben 0-2. But his third pitch, a curveball, was a little too much over the plate and the Cavalier senior ripped it to the gap in left field for a double.
Aaron Harlamert followed with a bunt single to give the Cavaliers (15-2, 5-0 MAC) runners at the corners, and Malave Bettinger hit an RBI single through the left side of the infield. Dylan Thobe followed with an RBI single, and Jack Hemmelgarn also singled as Coldwater tallied five consecutive hits to start the game.
“When you’re facing a good pitcher in Jackson, he is going to compete,” said Coldwater coach Brian Harlamert. “If you can get to him early … I think we kind of shell-shocked him. That is a huge start. Look at a lot of situations, when you have good pitchers you have to get them early.”
Six batters into the game the Indians finally got their first out when Kraig Schoenherr popped out to Jacob Homan at shortstop. Homan threw to Hunter Boughman at first base to double off Hemmelgarn, who had broken for second in an attempt at a stolen base.
Hobbs then settled down, getting a strikeout and then later retiring 10 straight batters. All six runs he allowed were earned, and he finished with 11 strikeouts. His only walk was an intentional one in the seventh inning.
Fort Recovery scratched across three runs over the fifth and sixth innings to get within one, 4-3, but a two-run seventh inning gave Coldwater a three-run lead that held until the end.
Coldwater touched up Hobbs for a dozen hits, 10 of which came from the top five hitters in the lineup.
“Four of them are seniors,” Harlamert said. “I think that’s a matter of our seniors were tough, focused, determined and able to make some plays.”
Fort Recovery, on the other hand, had difficulty executing on offense. With one out and Kyle Schroer on first base in the bottom of the second inning, a missed hit-and-run led to Schroer getting thrown out at second base.
Then in the third inning, Will Homan had a two-strike bunt attempt go foul, and two batters later Cade Wendel didn’t get his bunt out far enough in front of the plate allowing Coldwater catcher Aaron Harlamert to throw out Ross Homan at third base.
“We had some chances,” Kaup said. “We missed some of the things we could have maybe done early to get a run or two, we just didn’t get it done. If you do convert those, does it make a difference? At this point we don’t know. We can speculate.
“We called those, we were doing some things for a reason. We thought it would give us a better opportunity to score if we were doing those things, and we weren’t (getting it done).”
After being shut out for the first four innings of the game, the Indians broke through for a run in the top of the fifth on an RBI single from Wendel. Fort Recovery added two more in the sixth, during which Boughman scored from second on an error by Nathan Grunden at third base, and Ben Homan had a pinch-hit, RBI single to score Schroer.
“I’m happy we didn’t quit,” said Kaup, whose team meets Minster on Thursday. “Give up four runs early before you get an out, golly, that’s not exactly where you want to be when you’re playing the (best) team of the area, so to speak.
“That is not exactly how you want to start a ballgame.”