To the finals

HAMLER, Ohio — First, a sea of purple invaded Coldwater.
Then it took over Hamler.
Next stop, back to Columbus.
Jacob Homan blasted a two-run home run as part of a seven-run third inning Friday as the Fort Recovery High School baseball team booked a return trip to the state finals with a 11-1 dismantling of the third-ranked Kalida Wildcats in the Division IV regional championship game at Gerrold Parratt Field at Patrick Henry.
“It means everything,” Homan, a senior, said of reaching the state finals in consecutive seasons. “The baseball program has been working hard the past few years. It has finally come to its potential.
“It takes a lot of hard work, coming out here every day, working as hard as we can and trusting each other.”
Homan and the No. 10 Indians meet defending state champion and fifth-ranked Newark Catholic at 4 p.m. Friday at Huntington Park in Columbus. The Green Wave, which defeated Fort Recovery 4-0 in the state semifinal game last season, beat top-ranked Toronto 4-1 in 10 innings Friday.
“I thought the boys came out today (and) felt confident with (Nick Thwaits) on the mound,” said FRHS coach Jerry Kaup, whose team moves to 22-9 after knocking off the Wildcats (23-2). “Obviously we realize how fragile baseball games are and how the little things can make such big differences.
“We have been taking good at bats, good approaches at the plate and not been able to scratch many runs through. Today, especially in the third inning we were able to string some stuff together.”
Senior Ross Homan walked to lead off the top of the third inning, and his sophomore brother Will knocked him in with a double on a hit-and-run. After Thwaits popped out to the catcher, Cade Wendel laid down a squeeze bunt to score Will Homan for a 2-0 Tribe lead.
From there, the rout was on, and the Wildcats, who had a 20-game winning streak, had trouble getting the third out of the inning.
Jackson Hobbs — his two-hit, four RBI performance helped the Indians defeat Ayersville 7-5 on Thursday in the semifinal — walked on four straight pitches and then stole second base.
Jacob Homan followed by depositing a 1-0 pitch from Kalida starter Owen Recker deep over the fence in right center for his second round-tripper of the season.
“He gave me a high, outside fastball,” Homan said. With one swing of the bat Homan doubled the Indians’ advantage. “I just let it travel into the zone and I hit it as hard as I could. Hit it on the fat part of the bat and it flew.”
As it sailed into the outfield, center fielder Austin Swift played it off as if he lost track of the ball.
“The wind definitely helped it,” Homan added. “At first I thought it was a routine pop fly but it just kept going.”
So too, did Fort Recovery’s offense.
Homan’s blast knocked Recker from the game, and reliever Trent Siebeneck allowed a double to Hunter Boughman on his first pitch. An error scored Boughman, and Will Homan and Thwaits later drew bases-loaded walks. The Indians sent a dozen batters to the plate in the frame, scored five runs with two outs and staked themselves to a big 7-0 lead.
“When you’re able to get up 7-0 … the game is not near over,” said Kaup.
Kalida didn’t feel the game was over either. Though disappointed in the dugout, the mood was still positive, especially from coach Joe Recker.
The Wildcats were used to winning, and weren’t going to be fazed by an early seven-run deficit.
They just couldn’t figure out Thwaits.
The sophomore flamethrower retired the first eight batters of the game, including making all three outs in the second inning on lazy grounders back to the mound. He gave up his first hit of the game with one out in the second, and allowed only one more, a leadoff single by Noah Lambert in the fifth inning.
He allowed one earned run in the fifth, walked two and struck out six.
And he was thankful to take the mound in the third inning with a seven-run cushion.
“It was a long inning,” Thwaits said. The Tribe batted for nearly a half hour, scoring more runs in one inning than it had in the three previous postseason games. “We were very relaxed and I had confidence coming into that inning.”
Two errors by Kalida — it had five total — led to another run in the fourth, and Ross Homan had a sacrifice fly to make it 9-0 Fort Recovery. It added another run in the sixth on a to push the lead back to nine, 10-1, and plated the final run in the top of the seventh on a Wendel RBI single.
“They threw good pitches but we were able to put the ball in play,” said Thwaits, who had one of the Indians’ 10 hits on the day. Jacob Homan, Will Homan and Boughman all had multi-hit games, with Chase Bruns chipping in with a fourth-inning single. “They made a couple mistakes. So did we, but it turned out we were able to get the runs across.”
Kaup had a different analysis of the game.
“For Kalida, they are an excellent team, well-coached and they had a great season,” he said. “I think today looked like they just ran out of pitching.”
The Wildcats emptied the bullpen, tossing five pitchers at the Tribe, with Recker lasting the longest at 2 2/3 innings. He allowed two earned runs on three hits, struck out two and walked two in taking the loss.
“For us we were able to preserve some of our arms,” added Kaup. Wendel pitched two flawless innings of relief. “I think that was the difference.”