Historic upset the best in FR history

Editor’s note: In more than six years, sports editor Chris Schanz has seen his fair share of athletic contests. Some stick out more than others. In this “Greatest Games” series, he will reminisce about some of the games he’ll never forget witnessing.

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All things considered, the stakes couldn’t have been any higher.

It was April 28, 2015, at Coldwater Memorial Park’s Veterans Field.

The Fort Recovery High School baseball team, ranked No. 1 in Division IV with a 15-0 record, made the roughly 12-mile trip northeast to meet the defending Division III state champion Coldwater Cavaliers. The Cavs, who themselves were the top-ranked team in Division III, were 15-1 with their only loss to Jay County.

Veterans Field was packed to the gills. The stands behind home plate were full. There were people lined along each of the fences in foul territory, and nearly 100 others were sitting and standing beyond the outfield fence in left.

In terms of the Midwest Athletic Conference standings, first place in the league was on the line as both teams entered at 4-0, with St. Henry also in the mix at the top.

Given the stakes of the game, each team put their ace on the bump. Derek Thobe took the rubber for the Cavaliers on their home field, and promptly gave up one run to the Indians.

Mitchel Stammen walked to start the game, and reached second on a sacrifice bunt from Cole Wendel. Following a groundout to third, which kept Stammen at second, Jacob Homan hit an RBI double to right field for the Tribe’s first run.

Homan almost doubled the lead on a Derek Backs line drive to left, but he was thrown out at the plate on a perfectly executed relay throw.

Hobbs, who would later go on to hold multiple FRHS pitching records, went to the mound for the Indians in the bottom of the first against the vaunted Cavalier lineup.

Coldwater evened the score with a hit by pitch, a walk and an Aaron Harlamert RBI double. Harlamert later reached third on a passed ball and scored on an error to give the home team a 2-1 advantage.

Over the course of the next three innings, there was only two baserunners — one from each team.

Just as it had in the first inning, Fort Recovery manufactured the game-tying run in the fifth.

Kyle Schorer reached on an error, and a sacrifice bunt from Nate Locthefeld moved him 90 feet.

Schroer scored from second on a Ben Will single, and the Indians weren’t able to re-take the lead.

Yet.

Coldwater threatened to jump ahead with runners on the corners with two outs a half-inning later, but Hobbs induced an infield grounder to get out of the jam.

With one out in the top of the seventh inning, Schroer hit a single to left field and subsequently swiped second base off Harlamert, Coldwater’s catcher, to get in scoring position as the go-ahead run.

Lochtefeld hit a chopper to Kyle McKibben at shortstop. With Schroer breaking for third, McKibben rushed his throw to first base and Malave Bettinger couldn’t scoop the ball after Lochtefeld had already run through the bag.

As the ball rolled to the fence in foul territory, Schroer never broke stride as he rounded third base and headed home, scoring the eventual game-winning run without a throw.

Hobbs, who until that point had allowed just three hits over six innings with four walks and three strikeouts, induced a Pete Post fly out to right field.

Brandon Hoyng then popped out to Wendel in foul territory along the first base line, leaving the Indians one out away from an upset.

Hobbs’ first two pitches to McKibben missed the strike zone, and his third went for a called strike. The fourth offering was also off the mark, and McKibben fouled off the 3-1 pitch.

Suddenly, Hobbs was in a situation every young baseball player dreams about — being on the mound, a 3-2 count with his team clinging to a one-run lead.

McKibben lofted the payoff pitch deep into left field. Schroer tracked back and to his right, making the game-sealing catch on the run near the warning track.

He pumped his right fist, as Fort Recovery fans clad in purple beyond the outfield fence did the same.

Victory.

“It’s awesome, man,” Hobbs said after the game. “You run that (situation) through your head all the time. To actually end up getting through it and winning the game, it’s an awesome feeling.”

It marked the first time since 1981 Fort Recovery had beaten Coldwater on the baseball diamond.

“Tip your hat to Fort Recovery,” Coldwater coach Brian Harlamert said. “They are a very good team. Jackson Hobbs did a great job and won the game.”

Fort Recovery went on to win the first of back-to-back regional championships, advancing to the state finals for the first time in six decades.

The first regional title was great in its own right,.

However, this cool April evening, one with so much on the line and that ended more than three decades of futility against Mercer County’s and the conference’s most dominant baseball team, was far greater.