Early hole ends season

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ELIDA, Ohio — An early break helped the Cavaliers stake a lead in the first inning.

The Indians never fully recovered.

Fort Recovery High School’s baseball team wasn’t able to pull off heroics yet again against the Coldwater Cavaliers as the Tribe had its season come to an end Saturday with an 8-1 loss in the Division III district final at Elida’s Ed Sandy Field.

“This was not the cleanest ball game we’ve played all year,” said FRHS coach Jerry Kaup, whose sixth-ranked Indians finished 21-5. “We had a couple errors. Not the cleanest, crispest game we’ve had all year. When you do it at this level, when you get into the district final and you play like that (you’re) probably not going to survive.”

Coldwater advances to the regional tournament Thursday against Edison at 2 p.m. Thursday back in Elida.

“We set the tone early,” Coldwater coach Brian Harlamert said. “Found a way to get two early and just put pressure on them the entire game.

“I think that’s the bottom line that our program established, put pressure on the other team and play good baseball.”

That break came as Nick Thwaits struck out Coldwater leadoff hitter Austin Riethman to start the home half of the frame but the ball got past Fort Recovery catcher Kody Shinabery and rolled to the backstop, allowing Riethman to reach first safely. Sam Broering and Jacob Wenning both singled to load the bases. A wild pitch scored Riethman before Jack Muhlenkamp hit an RBI single with one out for a 2-0 lead.

“Actually we were quite proud of the way our team was able to limit the potential damage,” Kaup said. Thwaits struck out his pitching counterpart Cole Frilling and Wenning was later thrown out at the plate attempting to catch the FRHS defense sleeping by stealing home.

“We could have fallen way behind.”

Fort Recovery had difficulty breaking through against Frilling on a consistent basis. The Tribe got two runners on in the first inning but they were left stranded. In the third, Cade Wendel singled to the right side and moved to second on a fielder’s choice. He scored on a Thwaits RBI single as the Indians cut the deficit in half.

But in the bottom of the fourth the Cavaliers (23-6) tacked on five runs on three hits and one FRHS error. Wenning highlighted the frame with a two-run single ahead of a Nathan Grunden RBI sacrifice fly. Brad Giere also bunted in a runner on a squeeze, the same such play the Indians used to knock off Ottawa-Glandorf in the district semifinal on Thursday.

Thwaits, a Kent State signee who has the potential to be selected in June’s Major League Baseball draft, lasted just 3.1 innings, allowed seven runs — four earned — on six hits. He struck out six and walked two, despite the Coldwater batters never backing down from his low-90s fastball.

Frilling doesn’t have the same velocity as Thwaits, but in this game he was much more effective. He relied heavily on his curveball, inducing three strikeouts and causing the Indians to hit soft, infield dribblers.

“Cole was on fire,” Harlamert said. Frilling suffered the loss when the Tribe got a 4-3 walk-off victory on its way to the Midwest Athletic Conference title when they met April 26 in Fort Recovery. “He was efficient … couple hits by (Thwaits). Other than that he just pounded the zone and believed in the process.”

After Thwaits’ RBI single in the third inning, Frilling retired 11 straight before a Ben Homan single in the seventh.

“This is baseball,” Kaup said. “Things just go sometimes where you ain’t and then you start to feel the pressure and you start doing more than what you’re capable of. Then we got rattled, maybe, and Coldwater just kept the pressure on.

“It’s a tough pill to swallow today.”