FR wins third straight sectional

FORT RECOVERY — At this point in the season, a win is a win.
That’s how the Fort Recovery High School baseball team is reflecting on Wednesday’s 2-0 sectional championship victory against the New Bremen Cardinals in the Division IV Coldwater District.
The Indians (18-7) had chances to score runs, but at times couldn’t execute. New Bremen had its opportunities as well, but were held scoreless for the second time against the Tribe.
Fort Recovery also had plenty of positives to look at.
Senior Jackson Hobbs pitched well, scattering five hits over seven shutout innings. He struck out two and allowed one walk.
His defense behind him, particularly senior shortstop Jacob Homan and his sophomore brother Ben at second base, were exceptional.
“It’s tournament so it takes pitching and defense,” said FRHS coach Jerry Kaup, whose team moves to 18-7 and advances to the district semifinal at 5 p.m. Wednesday against the St. Henry Redskins in Coldwater. “Both teams brought pitching and defense tonight.”
Jacob Homan made plays deep in the hole between shortstop and third base not once, but on consecutive plays to preserve a 1-0 lead during the sixth inning.
Greg Parker doubled off Hobbs to start the frame, and reached third on a passed ball. Owen Leugers hit a sharp ground ball to the right of Homan, who checked Parker at third before rifling across the field to first baseman Hunter Boughman.
On the next pitch, Deion Hoehne drilled Hobbs’ first pitch for what appeared to be an RBI single, but Homan dived to his right to stop the ball, got to his feet, gathered himself as his sunglasses flew off his face and once again delivered a seed to Boughman, who threw to Chase Bruns at the plate to cut down Parker trying to score for an inning-ending double play.
“Those plays, if you’re going to win baseball games you have to make plays,” said Kaup, whose team closes out the regular season at 5 p.m. tonight at home against St. Marys Memorial. “Especially when you’re playing good competition and you’re getting into the tournament.
“(Homan) was given the opportunity … We’re thrilled that his confidence is getting to the point that he feels ‘Look, I’m going to give it my best shot. I know what I’m supposed to do.’”
And that was an inning after brother Ben recorded all three outs.
“We had a couple opportunities to come up with a big hit,” New Bremen coach Chad Wells said. “Unfortunately they made some great plays to hold us off.
“Really, we had two people up that I would want up in that situation, two seniors. They didn’t put bad swings on the ball, they just happened to give them great hops.
“Couple inches here, couple inches there, it’s a tie ball game.”
New Bremen’s Hoehne was stellar on the bump too. He allowed two earned runs on five hits while also walking one and striking out two.
Sophomore Nick Thwaits led off the home half of the first inning for top-seeded Fort Recovery with a single through the left side, and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from classmate Cade Wendel. Thwaits swiped third base, and he scored on a Hobbs groundout to the shortstop.
“You always want to score first,” Kaup said. “Nick had some pretty good swings on the ball tonight — got us going in the first inning. We would like to score more than just scratch a run occasionally, but we will take them any way we can get them.”
The Tribe had a runner at third base with one out in the second but he was left stranded. An inning later it had men on first and second but an inning-ending double play got Hoehne out of the jam.
Fort Recovery threatened again in the sixth inning during which Ross Homan hit a single and reached third on a wild pitch and stolen base, but he was thrown out at the plate for the final out of the inning.
The Indians did manage to push across an insurance run in the sixth during which Wendel walked and later scored on a single from Boughman. They had a chance to pad the lead in the same frame, but had a runner picked off first base for the second out and a groundout end the threat.
Still, the defending regional champions have completed step one to another deep tournament run.
“We feel fortunate to get the (win) and we’re moving on,” Kaup said.