Moment made for favorite photo

Editor’s note: Sports editor Chris Schanz has taken thousands of photographs since starting in the summer of 2013. In this “Photo Focus” series, he will take a look back at a handful of his favorite pictures and describe the story behind them.

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Great, or favorite, sports photographs don’t always have to be of eye popping.

They don’t have to be of a rare happenstance. They don’t have to be of an improbable athletic achievement, either. And most of all, they doesn’t have to necessarily tell the story of the game itself.

Sometimes, what makes a photograph a favorite is the meaning behind the moment that is captured.

It’s May 29, 2015, at Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio.

The Fort Recovery High School baseball team is making an appearance in the regional final for the first time in six decades.

It’s been a rollercoaster of a game against Cincinnati Country Day.

The Indians lost a three-run lead twice in the span of three innings. It wasn’t until the fifth frame the Tribe was able to even the score again. And in the top of the sixth, Fort Recovery fell behind by what seemed an insurmountable two runs with only six outs remaining.

But anyone who had been following the team through the postseason tournament that year knew any deficit wasn’t too much to overcome.

Ben Will put down a perfectly-placed squeeze bunt to tie the game, and he later scored the go-ahead run as part of a four-run sixth inning which carried the Indians to an 11-9 victory in the Division IV regional final.

The victory thrust the Indians into the state tournament for the first time since the 1950s.

During that four-run sixth inning, Mitchel Stammen, the most prolific base stealer in program history, broke for second base in an attempt to swipe another bag. He got caught in a rundown long enough to let Will head home from third. Stammen eventually made it to second base safely.

Two batters later, Jackson Hobbs hit a full-count pitch through the left side of the infield and Stammen scored the fourth run of the inning and final one of the game.

When he got up from sliding into the plate, Derek Backs greeted him and smacked him on the shoulder. Stammen made his way toward the home dugout, screaming, clenching his fists and skipping in celebration.

Stationed at the third-base end of the dugout, I shot pictures of Stammen’s path toward the dugout, capturing all of it. Seen behind him is the sea of purple, Fort Recovery’s fans in the stands celebrating just as much as he his.

The picture was not eye popping. It wasn’t of an incredible athletic achievement, either. And it certainly didn’t tell the story of the game itself.

But the moment was huge for the Indians, as they turned a two-run deficit into a two-run lead.

It was much more than that, though. A team, a program which had been through so much in the previous decade with seasons of just two wins, was three defensive outs away from going to the state finals.

That’s what makes the Stammen shot a favorite.